Two women died on Tuesday in an auto crash involving the motorcade bearing the wife of Abia Governor, Mrs Nkechi Ikpeazu.One of the dead was Nwamaka Maduchukwu, the media aide to Mrs. Ikpeazu.
The other woman was identified as Mrs Promise Uche-Nwamkpa, wife of a former member of the Abia State House of Assembly.Maduchukwu was a senior special assistant on media to Mrs. Ikpeazu.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learnt that the accident occurred when the motorcade was returning to Umuahia from Ntigha-Uzor in Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia, where Ikpeazu had attended a burial.
Witnesses said that the Hummer carrying the deceased somersaulted thrice, when the driver attempted to overtake a vehicle at Ndiolumbe around 5 p.m. A female occupant of the vehicle, who escaped unhurt, told NAN that the driver was on high speed when the accident occurred.
“The driver was on high speed and everybody in the vehicle was asking him to slow down. Suddenly the bus started jumping up and down before it started somersaulting,” she said.
The driver of the Hummer, Mr Bright Ugwubujor, blamed the accident on brake failure.
A medical doctor at the unit, where all the victims were brought for medical attention, confirmed to NAN the death of the two women.He said that other occupants of the bus, including the driver sustained bruises and minor injuries.
Mrs Nwamaka Maduchukwu and two of her kids
He further said Mrs Promise Uche-Nwamkpa, was brought in dead to the hospital.The second woman, Mrs Nwamaka Maduchukwu, gave up while doctors were battling to resuscitate her with the aid of an oxygen, he said. Maduchukwu was a widow and mother of four children. She was also the chairperson, State Information Chapel of the Abia Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
The former lawmaker, Uche-Nwamkpa, who came to the hospital to identify the body of his wife, wept uncontrollably.Her body was thereafter taken to the hospital morgue.Meanwhile, members of Maduchukwu’s church and colleagues resorted to frantic prayers to revive her. An aide to the governor’s wife, Mr Chika Ojiegbe, said the Office of the Wife of the Governor “will issue a release soon.” (NAN)