* Mimiko promises free medical bills to survivors

By Dayo Johnson

AKURE— SIXTEEN persons were roasted to death in an auto crash along the Akure-Owo Expressway in Ondo State late on Sunday.

The driver of the truck that caused the crash according to eyewitnesses sped off the scene of the accident.

Twelve others who sustained severe injuries are on admission at the emergency unit of the Akure General Hospital while a set of identical twin brothers escaped unhurt in the crash.

The deceased were travelling from Lagos to Abuja and Kano in two separate commercial buses when the unfortunate crash happened around 6.pm.

In a swift response to the crash the state governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko visited the survivors on their hospital bed and promised to take care of their medical bills.

Mimiko who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Mr. Kola Ademujimi also pledged to contact relations of the deceased who were outside the state and offer special treatment to those who suffered serious burns.

However, an eyewitness account told Vanguard that one of the buses marked KANO XE 513 FGE in a bid to overtake a truck ended up having a head on collision with another commercial bus marked LAGOS XR 290 EPE and somersaulted several times before it went up in flame.

It was gathered that the deceased were burnt beyond recognition and it took hours to remove their charred bodies from the wreckage of the buses.

Vanguard learnt that the crash occurred during a down pour when the driver of the truck reportedly refused to allow one of the drivers of the buses to overtake it which led to the collision.

The driver of the truck, it was gathered, increased the speed of its truck so as to disallow the bus from Abuja from overtaking it.

Not having a choice, the driver of the bus which was on top speed had to face the other bus and the havoc was done.

Vanguard was told that the Kano bound bus immediately went up in flames and its passengers roasted alive.

It took the combined team of the FRSC officials, men of the State fire service, the police to recover the corpse of the victims from the two buses with the use of axes and other cudgels.

The Ondo State Police PRO, Adeniran Aremu described the crash as unfortunate. Aremu pointed out that 15 person died on the spot while one other died at the hospital.