21 Army recruits die in Jigawa bridge collapse

About 21 military recruits have been killed on Sunday as a bridge collapsed in Gwaram Local Government Area of Jigawa State.

The fatal incident happened after their vehicle submerged in water along the Gwaram/Basirka road in Jigawa State.

The chairperson of the Jigawa Civil Society Forum, Musbahu Basirka said that the victims were travelling in a Hummer commuter bus from Kano to Adamawa when the incident happened.

Mr Basirka said the dead include a teenage girl but one of the applicants reportedly survived with a leg fracture.

Recall that the state government had reported on August 6 how diverted traffic from the highway linking the state and Kano with North-east Nigeria over concerns over the state of a bridge on the route following heavy downpours.

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The State Government had urged commuters to use alternative routes to allow work on the bridge.

However, the bridge marked for the work was not the one affected in the Sunday collapse.

Officials in the state are yet to comment on the development.

Meanwhile, the Police spokesman, ASP Lawan Shiisu Adam, confirmed the incident.

Mr Adam said a Hummer bus conveying 18 passengers from Kano to Adamawa and an unregistered lorry conveying three passengers fell into a broken culvert covered by floodwater.

“Today, Sunday, the 15th of August 2021, at about 6 a.m., a distress call was received by the police from Radabi village that an accident had occurred along Gwaram-Basirka road.

 “The accident occurred after one Hummer bus with reg. no. FYK 406 ZA conveying 18 passengers from Kano state to Adamawa state and a Canter lorry conveying 3 passengers to an unknown destination fell into a broken culvert full of water.

“Victims were evacuated to Basirka hospital, where 21 of the passengers were confirmed dead by medical doctors,” Mr Shiisu said.

However, he said one of the passengers, identified as Simon Chinapi, aged 26, of Mubi, in Adamawa, survived the accident.

“The Commissioner of Police in the state, Aliyu Tafida, has visited the scene and directed for a prompt and discrete investigation into the incident,” the police spokesperson said.

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