By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – The death of former Senator John Shagaya yesterday has brought to two the number of high profile personalities that have lost their lives recently on road crash.
Sundiata Post recalls that prior to Shagaya’s death on Sunday (Yesterday) along Ampaire Village of Kanke Local Government in Plateau State, the Minister of State for Labour, James Ocholi had also lost his life in a crash that occurred also on Sunday March 6, 2016 at Kilometre 57, along Kaduna-Abuja expressway on Sunday.
While Shagaya died alone in the accident the same cannot be said of Ocholi who was in the company of his wife and son and they all lost their lives in that ghastly motor accident.
The family of late John Shagaya (Andrew Ntiam) who confirmed his death to newsmen, said he received a phone call at about 2;30 pm informing him of the accident.
Mr. Ntiam said Shagaya left Langtanag for Jos at about 11:30am and it was along the way that the accident which claimed his life occurred.
According to him, “I was informed at about 2:30pm that Sen. John Shagaya [had] an accident in Ampaire, the headquarters of Kanke Local Government Area of Plateau State. I don’t have details of how the incident happen but I was told that the car somersaulted into the bush and he died.”
“The driver and the orderly were badly injured and they are currently receiving medical treatment at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH).
It was gathered that Shagaya was traveling from the village to Jos in his Land Cruiser Jeep when the vehicle lost control and somersaulted into the bush.
Gen. Shagaya, a founding member of the All Progressive Congress (APC), was recently appointed Board Chairman, National Institute for Policy and Strategy Studies (NIPSS) by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Late Shagaya was elected to the Senate in April 2007 as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), after his retirement from the military.
Similarly, according to the report released by the Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Boboye Oyeyemi, the accident that took the lives of Ocholi together with his wife and son was caused by a busted tyre which resulted in the loss of control and somersaulting of the minister’s official car.
According to FRSC Boss, “The crash occurred at about 1500hrs and involved two vehicles: one Toyota Lexus LX570 car and a backup car,” he said.
“Three lives were lost in the incident. While the minister and his son died instantly, the wife later died at the Doka Hospital near Kaduna.”
Born November 26, 1960, Mr. Ocholi was 55. He became Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 2007.
He was also the Chairman, Disciplinary Committee of the Abuja chapter of the Nigeria Bar Association.
In 2011, he was governorship aspirant in Kogi State on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change.
Between 2013 and 2014, he was deputy national legal adviser of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
In 2015, Ocholi sought the APC gubernatorial ticket at the party’s primary election, losing to the late Abubakar Audu. He was appointed minister in 2015.
If there is anything that Nigerians would not want to witness again, it is the lost of life on our roads and this means that governments at all levels should team up and and make our roads motorable to save the precious lives that are being sent to their untimely grave by reason of bad road.
