Eight students of Madonna University in Rivers State have been burnt to death in a road mishap, reports say.
The incident took place along the Trans-Saharan road in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, on Saturday while the students were travelling to Taraba State.
According to TheCable, the undergraduates were travelling home after the school went on break to permit students to vote in the forthcoming elections.
Their bus allegedly caught fire and got burnt beyond recognition, leaving eight dead and 10 other passengers seriously injured.
The injured passengers were taken to the Alex Ekwueme Teaching Hospital in Abakaliki, the State capital, for treatment.
An official of the institution, Benedicta Egoyibom, confirmed the incident.
She, however, failed to give details on the incident, insisting the matter is under investigation.
She said, “Yes, it is true. The school is trying to gather more information about how the incident happened.”
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The development has continued to elicit reactions on social media from families and friends of those who died in the accident.
A parent of one of the late students, Ezra Usman, expressed his anguish in a post on Facebook.
He wrote, “Grace Usman Ezra, I never knew sending you to Madonna university will lead to your untimely dead. 18 of you left Madonna to Jalingo yesterday only to hear the news that your bus had an accident and caught fire, 8 out of 18 came out from the bus.
“It is well with 10 of you and the rest that are alive, I pray for your speedy recovery and my God comfort us all that lost our children.”
Ebonyi police spokesperson, Chris Anyanwu, did not respond to calls and text messages sent to him on the matter — as of the time of this report.
Recall that the federal government had on February 9, directed that universities across the country be closed for three weeks to enable students vote in the coming elections.
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