Barely 72 hours after the lifting of a curfew that curtailed the night movements of Port residents for about two months, two fun-loving, boys and three girls met their untimely death in a horrible motor accident along NTA Road, Mgbuoba axis, Port Harcourt, on Friday night.
It was gathered that it was in the early hours of between 12:30 and 1 a.m. that residents living around the area got a hint of the incident, with sources saying that the deceased were chased by the police before the vehicle rammed into a stationary heavy duty truck.
The scene of the accident near Osmosis Hotel, Mgbuoba, was surrounded by a crowd of people. The scene caused a long traffic gridlock along NTA Road.
The victims’ car, a white-coloured Lexus with a Lagos plate number: JJJ 374 FS, hit a stationary tanker parked at one side of the road.
The victims were coming from Rumuokwuta axis and heading towards Choba before they had the accident.
They were also said to be on a very high speed.
The force with which their car hit the stationary tanker sent the big tanker off the road, crushing with the victims in the process.
A man who said he was among those who first rushed to the scene, explained that the five victims were returning from a club.
The resident also revealed that some money was found on one of the victims that was on steering. He said they had to use an ax to break parts of the victims’ car before they could drag their corpses out.
The resident said they handed everything they discovered from the victims while dragging their corpses out, including the money and phone, to the police when the latter arrived.
Another man who spoke to our correspondent said he was heading to Shell to fetch water when he saw what happened and decided to have a look.
He narrated: “I was driving down to go to Shell to fetch water. In the process, I saw the accident and we stopped. Before then, there was a guy butchering the vehicle to get out the corpses inside. They were five, three girls, two boys. I wouldn’t know if they were students because at a point I left. But the information we gathered is that bride price has been paid for one of the girls.
“One of them, the father came here and was saying ‘No, this is not my daughter,’ but later on he identified the girl as his daughter, because maybe, before him, the girl was a good girl, who knows? And if you look very well, there is a condom in that vehicle.”
When asked if the victims may have gone to club, he replied: “They’re coming from club, no doubt about that because the police men that came said they saw them, that the speed at which they drove was something else. They came here, they confirmed it, that ‘this was the vehicle that drove pass us. So they were coming from club at GRA, according to police.”
Adding his voice, a young man who said he was present when the police got to the accident scene, chipped in: “Casablanca. Police people mentioned Casablanca. The police men that saw them on the road said they pursued them but they could not get them because of the high speed.”
