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Twenty-one commuters on Thursday lost their lives when a trailer collided with a Hummer bus on the Abuja-Kaduna expressway.
The fatal crash occurred near a route diversion on the highway, making motorists from both directions to drive on a single lane.
The bus was en route to Kano State and Batsari town in Katsina State.
However, three passengers, who survived the crash with critical injuries, were rushed to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment while the remains of the deceased have been deposited in a local morgue.
The driver of the trailer reportedly abandoned the vehicle and fled the scene.
Travelling along the Abuja-Kaduna expressway has become risky due to security concerns and the poor state of the road.
Part of the challenges commuters face daily on the road is that the road has become a lair for bandits and kidnappers.
In one of such attacks in January, no fewer than 85 persons, comprising both travellers and residents, were said to were abducted by terrorists at Katari along the Kaduna – Abuja highways near Katari, in the Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
It was also gathered that more than four residents were killed by the hoodlums, who operated in the area between Thursday and Sunday, January 7.
The Kaduna State Police Command confirmed that there was a bandit attack on the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway at Dogon Fili near Katari but did not say anything about the abduction of the travellers along the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway.
The Command’s Public Relations Officer, Mansir Hassan, stated that security operatives battled the terrorists before they fled in different directions.
According to him: “There was a heavy gun duel along the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway between security operatives and bandits on the 6th January 2024 at 2330 hours or thereabouts.
“The incident occurred when the bandits in their large numbers attempted to cross the said expressway at Dogon fili area heading towards Jere axis and were engaged in a fierce shootout by the well-alerted security agents, who dislodged the hoodlums and ensured a lot of them only escaped but with gunshot wounds.
“Hence, the Police Command is calling on the public around that axis to be on the watch for any person or persons nursing suspected bullet injuries and report the same to the closest Police station or any security outfit.
“In the course of the battle, commuters plying the highway were caught in a crossfire, of which six persons sustained varying degrees of bullet injury.”
He identified those hit by bullets to include: Jibrin Tasiu (27), Jummai Abubakar (20 ); Zafira Abubakar (11 ) and; AbdulKarim Nurudeen (two), Chinedu Jerry Moneke (37) and Ayo James ( 42).
