A journey of solidarity and celebration ended in tragedy on Monday evening in Gombe State as seven journalists were killed in a fatal road crash while returning from a colleague’s wedding.
The victims were among a group travelling from a wedding ceremony in the Gombe South Senatorial District.
The trip was undertaken to show support for a fellow journalist, an employee of the Nigerian Television Authority, who was getting married. Their vehicle was involved in a lone accident, which preliminary reports from the Federal Road Safety Corps attribute to a possible tyre burst.
Confirming the incident, the Gombe State Sector Commander of the FRSC, Samson Kaura, stated that the crash was severe. “It is a lone accident, and from the information we have so far, it is very fatal,” Kaura said in a telephone interview.
He explained that the driver likely lost control after the tyre burst, causing the vehicle to somersault. “I suspect it may have been a tyre burst. Perhaps the driver applied the brake and the vehicle somersaulted.”
Rescue operations were ongoing at the time of the initial report, with FRSC teams deployed to the scene. A later update from Commander Kaura provided the grim toll: of the 11 people involved in the crash, seven died on the spot, while four others sustained injuries of varying severity.
The accident casts a sombre shadow over the festive period, highlighting the recurring danger on Nigerian roads during the Yuletide season. It follows other recent fatal crashes reported by Spear News, including one earlier on Monday that claimed the lives of two friends of Nigerian boxing legend, Anthony Joshua on Lagos-Ibadan expressway
The FRSC continues its investigation into the exact circumstances of the Gombe crash as the community and the nation’s media industry mourn the sudden loss of seven professionals.
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