According to reports, eight Madonna University students from Rivers State were fatally burned in a car accident.
According to reports, the event happened on Saturday when the students were traveling from Ebonyi state to Taraba state along the Trans-Saharan highway in Abakaliki.
The students were reportedly going home after the university announced a break for the upcoming elections.
According to reports, their bus caught fire, became completely burned, and left eight people dead and 10 critically injured.
The injured were sent right away to the state capital of Abakaliki’s Alex Ekwueme Teaching Hospital for medical attention.
A representative of the institution named Benedicta Egoyibom confirmed the incident when contacted by TheCable Lifestyle.
Yet she refrained from going into specifics, stating that the situation is being looked into.
“Yes, it is true. The school is trying to gather more information about how the incident happened,” she said.
The development has continued to elicit reactions on social media from families and friends of those who died in the accident.
Ezra Usman, a parent of one of the late students, took to his Facebook page to lament the incident.
“Grace Usman Ezra, I never knew sending you to Madonna university will lead to your untimely dead. 18 of you left Madonna to Jalingo yesterday only to hear the news that your bus had an accident and caught fire, 8 out of 18 came out from the bus,” he wrote.
“It is well with 10 of you and the rest that are alive, I pray for your speedy recovery and my God comfort us all that lost our children.”
Chris Anyanwu, Ebonyi police spokesperson, did not respond to calls and text messages sent to him on the matter — as of the time of this report.
On February 9, the federal government directed the closure of universities across the country for three weeks for the conduct of the coming elections.