Six persons including the head of a family, his wife, three children and their house-maid died in an auto accident while fleeing from their residence in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital over Boko Haram’s attacks.
The victims identified as members of Steven Offia’s family from Awhum in Udi Local Council, Enugu State were reportedly crushed to death by a trailer while returning to their home town on Tuesday to escape the bloody attacks by the Islamic sect.
The private car driven by the deceased Offia (the family head) was said to have collided with a trailer coming from the opposite direction at Otukpa in Benue State.
Offia, who was a panel beater and spare parts dealer in Yobe State, his wife Nneka, four children – three boys and one girl as well as their house maid were involved in the fatal auto crash.
However, only the second son of the family identified as Chibuzor survived the crash but he was said to be on the danger list at a hospital in Otukpa.
A relation of the deceased family members, Mr. Ben Offia, who confirmed the incident in a chat with Vanguard yesterday, said his deceased brother decided to move members of his family back home following the continued killing of Igbo living in the state by Boko Haram.
According to him, Stephen and his immediate family members left their Damaturu residence on Monday and stopped over at Abuja from where they continued their journey to the East on Tuesday.
”We were shocked to hear from the police on Wednesday that our brother and his family members perished in an accident that occurred within Otukpa in Benue State while fleeing the North on account of the violent attacks by Boko Haran,” he told Vanguard on telephone yesterday.
He said that some of their relations were sent to Otukpa to bring back the six corpses for burial at their home in Awhum Wednesday but they were yet to meet police requirement by press time yesterday.
”Our family has been thrown into deep mourning but we are particularly worried that their death was caused by Boko Haram insurgency. They were running away from the troubled area only to meet their untimely death close to their home state. “This is very sad and we are calling on the government to do something about this because the journey that brought about this calamity was induced by the trouble in the North,” Offia said
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