An
elderly farmer has been reported to have been crushed to death during an
accident involving one of the vehicles in the convoy of the Delta State
Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, around Umutu, in Ukwuani Council Area of the
state.
It
was gathered on Wednesday that the accident happened on Friday when one of the
buses in the governor’s convoy was returning from the Niger Delta Stakeholders’
Meeting, held at the Petroleum Training Institute, Effurun. It was hosted by
Chief Edwin Clark.
A
source within the convoy said the bus carrying the pressmen ran into the man,
who was said to be returning from his farm. He was said to have tried to dodge
a pothole along the Agbor/Abraka expressway.
Some
of the pressmen in the vehicle also sustained varying degrees of injuries,
prompting them to almost lynch the driver, until Okowa personally intervened.
The
governor later ordered that the victim, whose name could not be immediately
obtained, be rushed to a hospital.
The
journalists involved included some correspondents of the state-owned newspaper,
The Pointer, DBS
and other national print and electronic media. However, they were barred by the
state government from divulging the details of the accident to newsmen.
It
was gathered that the victim had earlier been rushed to an undisclosed hospital
in Abraka, the home community of the Delta State University. Later, he was said
to have been referred to Asaba for medical treatment, where he died.
The
driver of the 18-seater bus conveying the journalists was, as at Wednesday
afternoon, still being detained at the police headquarters in Asaba, awaiting
investigation on the incident.
A
senior police officer at the Delta State Command confirmed the development but
warned not to be quoted, based on the sensitivity of the report.
It
was gathered that there was grumbling among those said to be part of the trip,
as a result of Okowa’s failure to ask after the state of health of some of the
injured journalists.
One
of the journalists involved complained bitterly .He said they were not catered
for by the state government.
Efforts
to speak with the state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Patrick Ukah, or have
the governor’s spokesman, Mr. Charles Ehiedu Aniagwu, to speak on the incident,
proved abortive.
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Politics