TRAGIC VALENTINE : 11 Supporters Of Patience Jonathan Die In Ghastly Auto Crash

Valentine’s Day on Saturday turned out to be a tragic one in Rivers State when top female politicians from Bayelsa
State were burnt almost beyond Recognition in a ghastly auto Crash
along the East-west road while going back to Yenagoa
from a political meeting with the First Lady, Patience
Jonathan.

The tragic death of the 11 female leaders ;
an ex member of the Bayelsa State House of
Assembly from Brass Local Government Area and
Special Adviser to the state governor, Mrs. Ruth
Benjamin; a former Commissioner for Women Affairs in
the administration of Governor Timipre Sylva, Hon.
Gimbra Panowei; wife of the Secretary to the Bayelsa
State Government, Mrs. Elizabeth Allison-Oguru; and a
women’s leader from Otuoke community in Ogbia Local
Government Area, Mrs. Consider Amadi, occurred at
the Ahoada/Elele section of the East-West road in
Rivers State.
Also killed in the accident was the wife of the owner
of a popular Montessori school known as Ayakpo
International School, Mrs. Inamamu Ayakpor.
However, mother luck was on the side of one of the
women and former Bayelsa State Commissioner,
Ebisinte Ayabowei, who survived the accident.
We gathered that the former Commissioner for
Transport, Mrs. Marie Ebikake, who was recently
sacked by Governor Seriake Dickson for belonging to
the Patience Jonathan political faction in the state and
was also in Okrika, the hometown of the first lady, on
a private visit, but was reported to have driven back to
Yenagoa in a separate vehicle and escaped the ill-
fated journey.
The women were members of a non-governmental
group known as Women for Change Initiatives and
members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
They were said to have escorted the president's wife
to the Port Harcourt airport before heading back to
Yenagoa when they met their untimely death.
According to preliminary reports, the Bayelsa
Commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission
(FRSC), Vincent Jack, said 29 passengers in three
separate vehicles were involved in the accident.
Eighteen persons were reported injured while 11 others
were burnt beyond recognition.
The three vehicles involved in the accident were
identified as a Toyota Hiace bus with registration
number GBB591FS, a Toyota Siena vehicle with
registration number ABU640AE and a Toyota
Highlander SUV with registration number YEN 371RJ.
The FRSC attributed the cause of the accident to
burst tyre on one of the vehicles. “The injured were
taken to Madonna Hospital in Elele by the police who
were the first to arrive the scene of the accident. The
corpse of one dead women was deposited at Oepdem
Mortuary in Ahoada while police took another corpse
to Rumuji.
Nine others were burnt beyond recognition,” the FRSC
explained.
A top member of the women’s group, under condition
of anonymity, also told journalists: “We met at
Patience Jonathan’s home in Okrika community, and
after the brief meeting with the first lady, they were
supposed to go back on Friday.
“But when the first lady met them at the Port Harcourt
airport the next day, she was surprised that they were
still around.
“The women who were in a jolly mood replied the first
lady that they had wanted to make sure that ‘mummy’
leave for Abuja before they returned to Yenagoa. That
was the last we saw of them.”
Reacting to the incident, the Bayelsa governor
expressed deep pains, shock and grief over the death
of the wife of the Secretary to the State Government
and a group of prominent Bayelsa women involved in
the fatal road accident.
In a statement signed by his chief press secretary,
Daniel Iworiso-Markson, Dickson described the incident
as tragic, a monumental and painful loss to the state,
calling the women who lost their lives “our mothers
and sisters”.
The governor prayed to God to grant the bereaved
families the courage and strength to bear the very
painful and irreparable losses.
Meanwhile, a Government House statement added that
all official engagements of the governor had been
suspended for three days as a mark of honour and
respect for the souls of the departed women.
The government statement was however silent on the
relationship of the women with the first lady.
A political leader from Ogbia Local Government and
the state assembly standard-bearer of the All
Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Tonye Okio, also
expressed shock over the accident, describing it as a
huge loss to the people of the state.
Also, members of the state chapter of the
Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) led by
the former deputy governor of the state, Hon.
Werinipre Seibarogu, were early callers to the
bereaved families in the state capital.