The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has confirmed the death of a corps member around Jere village along the Abuja-Kaduna expressway.
The NYSC, in a statement issued yesterday by its Director of Press and Public Relations, Adenike Adeyemi, said 17 corps members were attacked by suspected armed robbers, who stormed the expressway.
According to the statement, the corps members had completed the 2020 Batch “B”, Stream 1B Orientation programme at the NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp, Ede, Osun State, and were travelling to the northern part of the country before the incident occurred.
The Corps also debunked the rumour that some corps members travelling from Osun State were kidnapped. “Tragically, the armed robbers’ sporadic gunshots unfortunately felled Corps member Bomoi Suleiman Yusuf. It is imperative to state that the 16 other Corps members were never abducted,” the statement partly read.
In a related development, twelve people have been confirmed dead and 25 others injured in a road accident that occurred along the highway yesterday.
The crash, according to the Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, involved a trailer and was caused by a combination of speeding, road defects, driving against the direction of traffic and loss of control, adding that the trailer veered-off the road pavement and overturned due to over-speeding.
He disclosed that the 25 injured victims were receiving treatment in the hospital, noting that some livestock also perished in the accident.
Meanwhile, the State governor, Nasir el-Rufa’i has expressed sadness over the report of the fatal accident, commiserating with the families of the deceased while wishing the injured a quick recovery.
