BY TIMOTHY AGBOR
There was confusion on Sunday following the death of a female trader in an auto crash at Orji community in the Owerri North Local Government Area of Imo State on the Owerri-Okigwe Expressway.
It was gathered that a heavy duty vehicle rammed on a commercial vehicle popularly known as Busimo.
While the victim’s head was said to have been cut off by the vehicle, other passengers in the bus sustained high levels of injuries and were rushed to various hospitals.
The state police command deployed its state Traffic Department to the scenes as the incident caused traffic gridlock.
An eyewitness said, “The auto crash has killed one person and many sustained injuries and were rushed to hospitals. The victim was a trader. She had closed for the day and went to a nearby community known as Akabo to drop something for somebody. She was on her way back when the accident occurred and she lost her life. This is horrible. Her head was chopped off.”
Our correspondent gathered that after the auto crash, some group of unidentified youths came and set the vehicle on fire.
The razing of the vehicle caused pandemonium as residents fled thinking that bandits had struck.
A resident said, “We thought that bandits were on rampage because the bursting of the tyres by the inferno looked as if it was dynamite that was thrown. It was later that it was discovered that the heavy duty vehicle was set ablaze by some unknown persons.”
When contacted, the spokesperson for the police in the state, Henry Okoye, confirmed the incident, saying others were rushed to hospitals.
He disclosed that the command had commenced an investigation into the cause of the accident.
