At least 10 members of The Lord’s Chosen church died while several others sustained injuries in an accident at Orogwe market bus stop in the Owerri Local Government Area of Imo State.
The accident involving a luxurious bus and an empty sand tipper occurred on Friday, April 19, 2024.
An eyewitness said the luxurious bus belonging to the Lord’s Chosen Ministry was conveying members of the church from Lagos State to their program scheduled to commence on Saturday in Owerri when the incident occurred.
According to to a source, the incident occurred when the Luxurious bus which was in high speed tried to avoid the tipper coming out from an adjoining road along the highway .
The source also disclosed that in an attempt to dodge the driver of the tipper, the bus unfortunately hit it from behind forcing it to ram into the culvert on the road.
The driver of the tipper and his conductor were said to have died instantly while the bus also allegedly crushed over ten passengers waiting to board vehicles at the bus stop.
The bus driver as at the time of this report was said to have survived the incident.
“It was around 6 am this morning, and we saw the bus driver carrying Chosen members, maybe from Lagos, the tipper was coming out from that corner. We don’t know what happened, but we later heard a loud sound, we saw that the bus had crashed into the shops on the right side of Orogwe market,” the witness told journalists.
“But before it finally crashed into the shops, the bus had hit the rear of the tipper which forced it to hit the culvert. About 8 people were later removed from under the bus while the driver was still alive.”
A middle-aged woman who survived with her daughter said; “We’re many in that vehicle, I don’t know if it’s full or not but our loads were also inside, we were going to our church program in Owerri when the accident happened,”
“Our load is still trapped in the bus but that’s not what we’re saying now, a lot of people have been taken to the hospital, and most of them were removed from under the bus.”
Some of the indigenes of the area also claimed that a similar incident occurred four years ago at the same very spot and claimed lives.
