The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Thursday, described as “depressing and extremely sad” a ghastly auto crash involving a train and Lagos State BRT staff bus in the Shogunle area of Ikeja, Lagos State.
He also consoled the families of the victims and sympathised with the injured, wishing them a speedy recovery.
“The accident at the level crossing involving the train and the BRT staff bus is distressing and extremely sad.
“I pray for the souls of the deceased and quick recovery of the many who were injured,” a statement signed by Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, read late Thursday.
The statement is titled, ‘President Buhari reacts to horrific Lagos train/bus accident.’
He commended the Lagos State authorities and Federal Government agencies for promptly getting involved in relief work.
The PUNCH reported that a speeding train rammed into a state bus conveying civil servants to work earlier in the day.
Both vehicles collided at the PWD bus stop, Ikeja, killing at least six persons and injuring over 82 who were rushed to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.
The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who visited the injured at the hospital, revealed that two persons died on the scene of the accident while four succumbed to their injuries at the hospital.
Sanwo-Olu said 85 passengers were involved, with 42 sustaining moderate injuries, 29 with serious injuries while eight suffered mild injuries.
Thursday’s fatal collision comes three months after a Kaduna-bound passenger train, in Abuja, rammed into a Toyota Camry sedan, killing its lone occupant, a middle-aged woman identified as Selimota Suleiman, an accountant with the Nigeria Television Authority.
