Chidi Okafor who lived in Owerri had  no premonition that his elder brother Ifeanyi Okafor was involved in an armed robbery attack and killed by a passenger luxury bus at Zariagi near Kabba junction in Kogi state.

Okafor woke up early at 5:30am on Tuesday, August 2, 2011, fully prepared to tackle his daily chores, among which was selling motor spare parts in Owerri main town. Without any inkling that his elder brother Ifeanyi, was already lying dead at Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, Okafor tried to clean up his house before leaving for his business premises but got stuck along the way.

In his word “I tried many times to clean up my room but I did not know what held me back. Between intervals, I tried to pick up my phone to call my brother who embarked on a might journey to Abuja to no avail. I did not actually understand what was happening to my body and I could never have imagined in my wildest moments that my brother would be a victim of an armed robbery attack”.

Later that day, Okafor left for his shop to attend to the business of the day. Physically he appeared ruffled but he could not actually point out what was happening to him. As he finally settled for the business a call from the cell phone of his elder brother Ifeanyi came  through at about 8:30am. He became elated because he thought his brother was calling him to inform him that he had arrived Abuja safely.

 The voice he heard was strange; it was that of an officer of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, Kogi State Command, Lokoja. The officer told him that the owner of the phone was involved in an accident and was being treated at the Federal Medical Centre Lokoja. The officer asked him to rush to Kogi to attend to his brother at the hospital.

Okafor immediately became confused. What was the magnitude of the accident? Was his elder brother still alive?

How would he get to Kogi State on time? Many questions kept cropping on his mind.

One of the survivors

He immediately sought for some money and hurriedly boarded a bus to Kogi State. At about 2.30pm he arrived at the Federal Medical Centre Lokoja and began the search for his brother.

The nurses at the Open Department (OPD) of Federal Medical Centre Lokoja directed him to get details of accident victims at the FRSC office Lokoja. It was at the office the sad news of his brother’s demise was broken to him.

Okafor couldn’t believe the news. He became very lonely like a sheep which has just lost track in the wilderness. He took courage and rushed back to FMC Lokoja where the nurse obliged him to see the corpse of the victims of the unfortunate accident. He couldn’t believe what he saw. Identifying the corpse of his elder brother was a very difficult job. The charred remains of the corpses were a very sorry and gory sight.

The bodies were crushed to pieces. The head, legs and arms were all dismembered.

It required uncommon courage to approach the corpses for identification.

The gory incident of Tuesday August 2, 2011, is the grim reality of the security situation across the states of the Federation. There is hardly any road in Nigeria that is safe for traveling.

Armed bandits have taken the advantage of the deep pot holes on the roads which force vehicles to come to a halt while navigating or avoiding the depths of the potholes. On a daily basis armed men lay ambush to terrorize innocent Nigerians who travel on the roads.

In spite of the billions of naira that are yearly allocated to the nation’s security sector by the Federal Government, there is no improvement on security of lives and properties in the country especially as there is the unholy alliance between lapse security arrangement and the terrible nature of Nigerian roads. On a daily basis Nigerians loose their lives due to lack of active security operations across the nation’s roads. This is not good for a nation that is in dire need of human resources for the development of its economy.

The 14 people that lost their lives were on their way to Abuja for various transactions. The bus that conveyed them was already approaching Lokoja before the armed robbers flagged down the bus at Zariagi, near Kabba Junction.
The armed robbers asked them to lie face down on the high way.

The victims, who were helpless, had no choice than to obey the last command of the armed robbers. While the robbers were carrying out their illicit business a passenger bus at top speed rammed into the victims and crushed fourteen of them at a go. Ten of them were men; three women; while the remaining one was a little girl.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of Kogi State Police Command, ASP Osunkami Ajayi, confirmed the incident to newsmen in Lokoja on Tuesday. The Kogi State FRSC Commander Mr. Sunday Maku, said he got a distress call at about 5.30am that armed robbers were on the prowl at Zariagi.

He stressed that when his men got to the area they discovered that an upcoming bus had crushed the armed robbery victims to death.

As at press time the police had impounded the bus while investigation on the armed robbery attack was being carried out.

Another relative of the armed robbery victim, Miss Chinyere Chukwu, refused to be consoled as she recovered body of her brother was in pieces. She wept profusely and blamed the bus driver for over speeding on the high way. In her words if the driver of the bus was not over speeding, he wouldn’t have overrun the robbery victims. Who knows if the armed robbers would have left the victims unhurt after dispossessing them of their personal belonging and money”, she asked?

Miss Chukwu in tears said she would not have another brother to sponsor her education. “Who will ever come to the aid of our family?” she kept crying uncontrollably.

There is no doubt that Nigeria’s security situation continues to deteriorate over the years.  For many years Niger Delta militants made living hellish for the people of the region under the guise of liberation. While the problem was about to be resolved, Jos ethno-religious crisis, heightened, with many lives lost to that, too. Many innocent Nigerians are still losing their lives in the unending Jos crisis. At the moment the Boko Haram sect is making lives meaningless to indigenes and settlers of Borno State. Every day people wake up to yet another bomb blast in Borno State.

As for armed robbery at home and on the roads, Nigerians are becoming too familiar with that, unfortunately so!