Commercial bus driver escapes death by the whiskers as car fell into a ditch

Driver of a commercial bus operating in Aba, the commercial nerve of Abia State have reportedly escaped death by the whiskers as the road he was plying on; East by Ahia Udele (a popular abattoir), caved in during torrential rainfall at the weekend.

East road by Ahia Udele is one of the major and busiest roads in Aba as it connects the city center with the Aba-Ikot Ekpene road on the Ogbor Hill flank of the economic buzzing city.

Our reporter who visited the scene on Sunday (yesterday) gathered that the incident happened around   on Saturday during a torrential rainfall that came with a whirlwind.

Traffic was diverted to Rivers Layout to connect Ikot-Ekpene Expressway and other parts of Ogbor Hill.

While the driver of the vehicle is said to be in good condition, his car was still trapped in the gully at the time of filing the report.

Many respondents including business owners and residents of the area feared that if nothing was urgently done to arrest the situation, they may lose their shops and houses to the gully.

Mr. Daniel Victor, the driver of the commercial bus told our reporter that the incident occurred around past 10 PM on Saturday when he had already closed work and was returning home.

In his words, “Actually this incident happened around after 10PM when I was returning from work. The rain was very heavy. The first rain came and stopped and I decided to go home before the second rain caught up with me. 

“I passed through the road in the day and when I was driving, I never had it in mind that the place has caved in. I was not on high speed because it was raining, but I didn’t see the hole because I wasn’t expecting such. 

“When I saw it suddenly, I held my break, but it was too late because I was very close to it. The water dragged me in and I fell into the hole.”

Victor who could not speak battling with emotion recounted how some young men made his life more miserable at the accident scene by stealing his motor battery and car particulars from him in pretense of trying to help him.

“It was still raining and even when and I managed and struggled to bring out my papers and battery, some young men I thought were coming to rescue me, came and beat me up and took my phone, my whole money and battery that I suffered to bring out from this big hole.

“They were dragging my papers before a resident from one of the nearby upstairs flashed torchlight and they suddenly left,” he said amidst tears.

Meanwhile policemen from Ndiegoro Division under whose jurisdiction the incident occurred later came to the scene and cordoned off the area, with the advice that residents should avoid the road for now.

The Divisional Police Officer of Ndiegoro; SP Alphonsus Ayang, who led the team of officers described the scene as a death trap.

Ayang said that necessary arrangements were on going to pull the vehicle out of the ditch and also to let the relevant authorities to know about the incident.

In his words, “I’m making arrangements already to alert the State Fire Service on how to pull the vehicle out from this place. And you can see that the road is still collapsing. 

“The soil is too weak. We barricaded the whole place to alert people about the danger here. I’ll contact the relevant authorities to see that the vehicle is pulled out. 

“And I’m also using this medium to call on the relevant authorities to see that this place is fixed immediately because if that is not done, so many lives may be lost here. 

“Because it’s a very busy road. Strangers who don’t know much here can have a serious problem here.”

He however said that the driver’s complaint about the attack by some hoodlums was not brought to his attention, but assured that preliminary investigation will be carried out to fish out the culprits.

“We have not been informed about the robbery incident. The matter was not even reported to us. I just got Information about the incident and decided to come quickly to take control of the situation. 

“No report has been made, but now that we’re aware, we’ll take over from there and do a preliminary investigation. So, we’ll move into action to unravel those behind that act.”

Other residents who spoke condemned the manner in which the construction of the road was done and called on the government to act fast and fix the road as it is the easiest shortcut between the Aba Main Town and the densely populated Ogbor-Hill axis of the city.