Yellow fever death toll in Benue hits 112
No less than 15 people died on Friday when two buses collided along the Maiduguri/Damaturu road near Mainok Village, Kaga Council of Borno State.
Confirming the incident in Maiduguri yesterday, the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC) Sector Commander, Sanusi Ibrahim, disclosed: “I just got the report from our unit that two buses had a head-on collision at Mainok Village, 60 kilometres from Maiduguri.”
He said that 15 passengers, including the two drivers, died at the scene of the accident.
Attributing the crash to tyre problem and over-speeding, Ibrahim said: “The driver of the bus lost control because of a front tyre eruption that led to the head-on collision.”
According to him, the 40-kilometre Maiduguri/Jakana road had been in a poor state in the last six years.
“Eight of the deceased were females, while the rest were males travelling to Maiduguri, the state capital,” he said, adding that the corpses were deposited at the Beneshiek General Hospital for identification by relations.
He charged motorists to observe speed limits and other road safety regulations, to prevent loss of life and property.
IN another incident, not less than 112 persons from Ogbadibo and Okpokwu councils of Benue State have reportedly died of Yellow fever since the outbreak of the disease in September 2020.
Sources from the state’s Ministry of Health and Human Services revealed that Benue, upon receipt of information about the outbreak, mobilised human and material interventions to the affected communities.
Confirming the incident in an interview, the state’s epidemiologist, Dr. Terungwa Ngise, told newsmen that emergency interventions mobilised to the communities included immunisation, treatment of infected persons, the supply of mosquito nets as well as depopulation of mosquitoes responsible for the spread of the virus.
Ngise, however, decried the refusal of some Ogbadibo residents to submit to immunisation, on the belief that the gods of the land caused the death, and that only the gods could heal them.
The expert, who regretted that such beliefs were frustrating interventions in the area, added that despite the people’s resistance, the state government would not be deterred in his effort to contain the spread of the virus to other parts of the state.
