Fourteen persons, members of the Assemblies of God Church, Isu in Ohaazoara council area of the eastern Nigerian state of Ebonyi have died in a ghastly accident in the state.

The accident occurred on Saturday at Amasiri Secondary School junction, along Afikpo-Okigwe road in Ebonyi.

Mr Roland Ogbuke, Afikpo Unit Commander of Federal Road Safety Commission said the accident involved an articulated vehicle and a 14-seater bus.

The church members were returning from a burial.

“We received a distress call on Saturday and immediately mobilised my rescue officers to the scene of the incident.

“We are not sure of the cause of the accident, but an eye witness told us that the articulated vehicle was trying to dodge a heap of sand on the road and ended up hitting the oncoming vehicle. The impact of the hit by the articulated vehicle threw the bus to a tree some metres away from the road and squeezed it into some zero shape that mangled bodies of the occupants.

“We had to mobilise a nearby quarry company which used its heavy duty machine to cut the tree and the bus, in order to evacuate the mangled bodies of the passengers,” he said.

Ogbuke remarked that the crushed passengers were mostly women, adding that their relatives and church members, who were in other vehicles, helped FRSC officers in the evacuation process.

“The police in particular, assisted the FRSC in evacuating the bodies to the Mater Misericordae Hospital, Afikpo,’’ he said.