Gov Ugwuanyi Fulfills Promise To Catholic School That Lost 7 Pupils, 2 Teachers In Auto-Crash

The Enugu State government, Friday, donated a brand new 18-seater bus to Presentation Nursery and Primary School, Awgu, in fulfillment of the pledge made by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi during the requiem mass in honour of the seven pupils and two teachers of the school who lost their lives on 29th October, 2020 fatal road accident at Nkwo junction in Awgu Local Government Area of the state.

The accident involved the bus of the school, owned by the Catholic church, and a low-bed trailer belonging to a construction company. The trailer reportedly failed brake while descending Mmaku slope of Oji River-Awgu road by Ngwo junction, linking old Enugu-Port-Harcourt expressway, and rammed into the school bus when some pupils of the school were disembarking after closing from school. A vulcaniser and his apprentice, working at the junction, were among those killed in the accident.

THE WHISTLER recalls that Gov Ugwuanyi, shortly after the accident, visited the recuperating survivors in hospitals, and settled their hospital bills. Aside the school bus, the governor also promised to erect a monument at the scene of the accident to immortalise the victims.

Presenting the bus to the Enugu State Catholic Education secretary, Rev Fr Ikechukwu Ani, the secretary to the Enugu State Government, Prof Simon Uchenna Ortuanya, stated that the gesture was in line with the governor’s commitment to providing succour to the masses, as well as his sensitivity to quality education and protection of lives and property of the people of the state.

Rev Fr Ani expressed gratitude to the governor for the gesture, recalling that Gov Ugwuanyi ‘did not only go round to see the survivors in the hospitals, but also paid their hospital bills, and was personally present at the requiem mass’.