No fewer than 12 people were on Saturday burnt beyond recognition while three others sustained serious injuries in a ghastly accident along the Sagamu-Ore-Benin Expressway.



The accident was caused by a collision between a Toyota Hiace bus belonging to Ajetunmobi motors and a Mack Truck.


An eyewitness said that the two drivers, who were coming from Lagos, were on a top speed, competing with each other on the road before the Toyota bus lost control and collided with the truck a few metres away from the Ososa bridge.

Mr Isa Seidu, the Ijebu-Ode Unit Commander of Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), who confirmed the incident, said that over speeding was the cause of the accident.

Seidu gave the registeration number of the Toyota Hiace bus as registration number XA 650 DBN and the Mac Truck with registration number LG 35 BBG.

He explained that the driver of the Toyota Hiace who was coming from Lagos to Akure, was on top full speed, competing with the Truck driver before he collided with the truck and busted into flames.

In his comments, on the incident, Mr Hamsat Tommy, the Ijebu Zonal Commander, the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency, said that the 12 dead bodies had been taken to General hospital, Ijebu-Ode.

Tommy said they had a hectic day controlling traffic along the three bridges of Odogbolu and Ososa on the express.

Another accident which claimed many lives was also reported to have occurred along the popular J4 on the same express way.

It was gathered that a 14 passenger bus travelling to Ondo State, ran into the river along the express, with no survivor

The Ijebu-Ode unit commander of FRSC also confirmed the incident.

He said that the number of casualties was yet to be ascertained because rescue operation was still ongoing.

Seidu, noted that the rescue effort was slow because the command lacked necessary equipment to bring the people out of the river.

“It was indeed a sad and busy day for us. We were trying to rescue those that plunged into the river when they informed us about the explosion at Ososa bridge“

He, however, urged passengers to always caution drivers whenever they noticed recklessness on his part, adding that the two accidents were caused by over speeding.

As at the time of filling this report, rescue operation was still ongoing at J4 Bridge.

A man confessed to stabbing his girlfriend to death because she did not tell him she was HIV positive before they had sex. ‘She killed me, so I killed her’, Larry Dunn Jr, 36, told officers in Dallas, Texas, after the body of Cicely Bolden, 28, was found by her two young children returning home from school.



The 28-year-old was lying unclad from the waist down on her bedroom floor bleeding from two stab wounds in her neck. Ms Bolden and 36-year-old Dunn had recently started dating. He later told police that when she confessed to having the virus she then told him it was ‘not that bad’. He became upset and walked to the kitchen to get a knife which he used to kill her with, according to police
.

Neighbor Latoya Arnett, who called 911, told Kens5: ’All I know is, she didn’t deserve it and her kids didn’t deserve to see her like that.
‘She was a good mom. Loved her kids to death. I can’t imagine my kids seeing me like that. I know it hurt them.’

During a recorded interview he admitted the crime and revealed he burned his clothes afterwards and dumped the knife in the garbage at a waffle house.
Police later recovered the weapon.

The father of Cicely’s son, Jeff Busby, told Fox that Bolden had contracted HIV within the last couple of years. He is currently looking after her son and daughter.

Speaking about Dunn, who is being held on $50,000 bond, he said: ‘I hope he rots in prison. She did not deserve this.’ Ms Arnett said she went inside the apartment and found Cicely lying on the bedroom floor.

Earlier that day, she claimed, she had seen Dunn arriving at the apartment. Stuffed teddy bear toys have been laid outside what’s now a boarded-up apartment in Highland Village Drive with candles lit in memory of Ms Bolden.

In a scandalous twist of events, we learned that an Air Nigeria crew at Gatwick Airport yesterday asked passengers to contribute £40 each to enable them purchase fuel to depart for Lagos several hours after the flight’s takeoff was delayed.



About 190 passengers on Flight LOS-VK 0292/08 said they were surprised by the request.  They confronted the airline official who had made the request, and he quickly disappeared from the riotous scene.

The flight, which was scheduled to fly out of London at 9:50a.m, eventually did so at 5p.m., arriving in Lagos at 12:30a.m.   But the ordeal of the passengers was hardly over.

A passenger, Lekan Fatodu told us that when they arrived at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, they discovered their baggage had not arrived with them. They were left stranded for several hours before an official of the airline told them to return the next day for their luggage.

It was learned that the airline’s bag handling service, Swissport, refused to provide ground-handling services to the airline because Air Nigeria had not met its obligations to the company.



Air Nigeria’s embattled owner, Jimoh Ibrahim, last week announced the sacking of over 500 workers at the airline and suspension of all flight services starting from tomorrow, September 10.

Mr. Ibrahim claimed that his workers were disloyal to the company but the workers said during a street protest that Mr. Ibrahim was a bad manager who diverted funds given to the airline by the Nigerian government and is negligent in aircraft maintenance. The workers have not received salaries since April 2012.

Mr. John Nnorom, a former chief financial officer of the airline told us yesterday that of the 11 aircraft in Air Nigeria's fleet, only one is serviceable. We learnt that most lessors have repossessed their aircrafts from Air Nigeria, leaving it with only four aircrafts.

Following the publication by SaharaReporters of a powerful petition by Mr. Nnorom detailing the troubles facing the ailing airline, Air Nigeria’s operations were suspended.

The petition appeared on June 4, one day after a Dana Air MD-83 aircraft crashed near the Lagos airport killing 159 people.

The international flights were operated through a wet lease arrangement between Egypt Air and AirNigeria.

The silent war over the management of some properties belonging to Ojukwu Transport Limited, OTL, has taken another dimension as the wife of  the late Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, through her lawyer, has insisted that the estate management agent, allegedly appointed by her late husband, Mr. Emmanuel Omuojine of Omuojine & Associates, would remain in charge of the five properties in Lagos.



Directors of OTL, Professor Joseph Ojukwu (Chairman), Engr. Emmanuel Ojukwu, Mr. Lotanna P. Ojukwu, Dr. P. Ike Ojukwu, Arc Edward Ojukwu and Mr. Lotanna A. Ojukwu, had, in a recent public notice, disowned the agent, saying that at no time was he appointed by the company’s board of directors to manage any of their properties.


The properties in question are, 13 Hawksworth Road, Ikoyi (now 13 Ojora Road, Ikoyi) Lagos; 32A Commercial Avenue, Yaba, Lagos; 29 Queens Drive, Ikoyi, Lagos; 30 Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos and 4 Macpherson Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Counsel for Mrs. Ojukwu, Emeka Onyemelukwe of in a letter, dated May 28, in response to a letter by the OTL counsel, Ifeanyi Okumah of Sterling Attorneys, Enugu asking Omuojine to hands off the properties, informed the directors that the management firm was appointed by the late Ojukwu to manage the said properties under his care and was not relieved of that responsibility until the late Ikemba Nnewi’s demise.

Okumah, writing on behalf of the OTL Directors, in a letter dated May 17, 2012, informed Omuojine and Associates that Massey Udegbe and Co had been duly appointed management agent of OTL properties in Lagos and that he (Omuojine) should not in any manner interfere with the firm (Massey Udegbe) in carrying out its duties.

“You are reminded of the serious consequences of not adhering to the above and that to continue to parade yourself and/or your company as an agent of OTL constitutes economic breaches which are criminal in nature and highly unprofessional,” Okumah stated.

He further asked Omuojine to provide OTL with itemized list of all monies he collected while managing the said properties for several years and remit same to the company, adding that he should among other thing “cease and desist from holding yourself out to be their managing agent”.

“May we then use this opportunity to warn that you (Okumah) call your client, Messrs Massey Udegbe & Co, and the unknown director who briefed you to order? They should not in any way disturb the tenants, who reside, and or carry on their legitimate businesses on those properties under the care and management of Messrs Omuojine & Associates, in any form or manner inimical to those tenants’ interests. If they do so, we may have to resort to appropriate measure/s to stop them,” Mrs. Ojukwu’s lawyers further wrote.

Vanguard