No fewer than 16 persons have been confirmed dead in Saturday’s road accident in which a trailer conveying bags of rice rammed into a market in Akungba Akoko, Ondo state.
Residents who were angry with the incident reportedly set ablaze some bags of Rice the trailer was conveying. They also burnt the trailer.
Eye witness said the trailer driver while descending Okerigbo hill in Akungba had a break failure and loss control.
Those dead included eight adult males, four children and four adult females.
The corpses had since been deposited at Specialist Hospital, Ikare and General Hospital Iwaro Oka mortuaries by FRSC emergency rescue teams.
Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, who gave the figures in an update, called for relocation of markets from the highway.
Oyeyemi, who spoke in a statement by the Corps Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, Corps Marshal said the relocation of markets from the highways was necessary to reduce fatalities of road accidents on highways as well as help existing operational efforts of the FRSC.
According to the statement: “The Corps is concerned with the rising statistics of innocent citizens who have lost their lives as a result of building markets close to the highways and has since initiated impact oriented operational strategies to curb the menace.
“Tbe strategies no matter how good will not yield desired results if the government at the grassroots did not rise to the responsibility of relocating those markets.”
Meanwhile, some youths staged a protest blocked the Ikare – Owo highway incessant accidents on Akoko roads.
The youths carried placards with inscriptions such as “incessant motor accidents a danger to our existence,” “untimely deaths too many in Akungba,” “Akeredolu come to our aid.”
*Additional reports from The Nation
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