Kano students: Fatal accident caused by burst tyre, victims named

A statement by Halilu Ibrahim Dantiye, Director General Media and Communications to the Executive Governor of Kano State:

"Seven students from Kano lost their lives on Tuesday morning, along Ibadan–Lagos express way in a road accident, believed to have been caused by burst tyre.

The students, Ahmed Faisal, Kamal Muhammad and Abubakar Abdullahi, are from Kano Capital School while Umar Musa, Sani Musa, Ibrahim Sani and Yusuf Danladi came from Unity College, Karaye, in the state.

Others who lost their lives in the accident are Aminu Abdullahi, the driver of their ill-fated bus and Mr. Okafor, a staff of FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc. Three other students however, sustained various degrees of injury.

 

The contingent was returning in a bus, belonging to a public secondary school in Kano, from a National schools quiz competition organized by FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria Plc, the producers of Peak Milk, in Lagos.

 

Briefing parents of the victims at the Government House, Kano today (Wednesday), the state governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje described the incident as shocking saying it has affected the entire state.

 

“On getting information about the accident, I immediately called the governor of Oyo state who got personally involved and even visited the hospital to see the injured. We have also arranged for the injured and the deceased to be transported to Kano this evening by air”, the governor soberly declared.

 

Describing the late students as heroes who were on a mission to do the state proud, Governor Gandjue urged their parents to take sole in the fat that all mortals will inevitably die.

 

He prayed Almighty Allah to grant the deceased eternal rest and to stand by the bereaved as they mourn the loss of their beloved children who died in their formative years.

 

Also speaking, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Special Duties and immediate past chairman of the state Council of Ulama, Shiekh Ibrahim Khalil quoted copiously from the Holy Qur’an and hadith to comfort and placate parents and relatives of the deceased, whom he described as martyrs.

Meanwhile, the governor led a delegation of politicians, top civil servants, parents and other family members to receive corpses of the victims who were brought to the state capital on board AZMAN Air, at Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, to hasten their burial according to Islamic rites.

They will be buried tomorrow at the Tarauni graveyard after the funeral prayer at the Emir of Kano's palace by 9am"