Drowned bus NEMA recovers 12 bodies

The bodies of 12 out of the 18 passengers who drowned on Friday when a fully loaded commercial bus plunged into a river at J4, Ogbere-Ijebu area along the Sagamu-Ore Expressway on Friday have been recovered.

While the bodies, recovered on Saturday, have been deposited at the morgue of Ijebu-Ode General Hospital, the

search for the remaining bodies is expected to continue on Sunday.

Fresh facts have also emerged that some children were thrown out of the windows of the ill-fated bus by the passengers as it headed for a plunge into the river.

The wreckage of the Federal Urban Mass Transit Scheme bus with registration number BWR 428 XA Abuja, was pulled out of the river along with some of the dead passengers at about 2:00pm.

Some distraught family members of the deceased, who refused to be identified, said there were 21 passengers in the bus.

The relations said the vehicle took off from Sango-Ota, Ogun State, for Benin, Edo State.

According to the South West Information Officer of the National Emergency Management Agency, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, no fewer than six more bodies were still being expected to be fished out of the river by the end of Sunday (today).

Farinloye said that NEMA brought in the crane belonging to a logging firm, Omo Wood, with which it located the wreckage of the bus deep down the river bed.

The agency also mobilised local divers to recover the bodies.

He, however, said the recovery operations would continue Sunday (today).when the agency would bring in more divers.

Security agencies and other stakeholders who took part in the over eight-hour recovery operations included the police, the Federal Road Safety Commission, Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency, Ogun State Emergency Management Agency, as well as Ogun State Fire Service and Ambulance Service.

TRACE Zonal Commander for Ijebu Command, Commander Abdul Tommy, attributed the accident to excessive speed.

“You can see the distance the vehicle travelled before it plunged into the river, which shows that the driver was on a very high speed,” he said.