A trailer has crushed to death about 21 persons, including women and children at a police road block in Ihiala.
According to osazuwaakonedo.news, the accident took place on Sunday when the trailer was descending the slope from Owerri to Onitsha, and allegedly lost control, ramming into the people and other vehicles at the police defence formation.
Casualties include petty traders, hawkers, travelers and passersby who were unfortunate to be at the spot when the trailer struck.
Sources close to the police said since members of the unknown gunmen took control of some villages i Ihiala Local Government Area, the Nigeria Police Force mounted road blocks to secure the Ihiala Police Area Command which also housed the Divisional Police Headquarters which many police personnel that were driven by unknown gunmen in the interior villages now report to.
Passengers traveling on the road are usually forced to come down and trek past the police formation with hands up.
Those allowed to remain inside the vehicle are very elderly persons, pregnant women, nursing mothers with their babies and the driver.
The accident which occured between the hours of 1 and 2 pm on Sunday killed passengers, mostly travellers plying the road to Owerri, the Imo State capital and other states in the Southeast and South-South zones.
Residents said angry youths tried attacked the police men when they searched and found the lifeless body of a little boy who hawked food items at the roadblock with his skull badly crushed, but the timely intervention of men of the Nigerian Army saved the station.
Residents said none of the police men on the road was killed or injured in the accident, adding, they all ran into the police station safely.
Nigeria Police Force is yet to react to the incident.
Some residents said while they were removing dead bodies, a baby they thought were among the dead bodies cried and the baby was rushed to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Ihiala.
Surivivors include a woman whose hand was cut off by the accident.
The residents confirmed that over 21 dead bodies were deposited at the morgue, including one of the survivors who died on way to the hospital.
They put the figures of those who sustained injuries at 45.
Source: Osazuwa Akonedo News
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