CONVOY TRAGEDY: NTA NUJ chair, wife, child, maid die in crash •Ondo Dep gov, traditional ruler involved, escape death

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NO fewer than four persons, including the chairman of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Akure Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Alex Akinwale, his wife, daughter and housemaid, died in an auto accident, involving the Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Alhaji Alli Olanusi, on Saturday but who escaped death when a vehicle rammed into his convoy.
This is also as former Anambra State factional chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Egwuoyibo Okoye, on Friday night escaped death following a fatal road crash.
In the Ondo incident, apart from the family that perished,
a traditional ruler was also critically injured.
The incident occurred at Aponmu-Owena, along Akure – Ondo road, when a white Toyota Camry car belonging to the traditional ruler, the Osunmakinde of Ife Tuntun, Osun State, Oba Obawure Taofeek Olaposi, ran into the deputy governor’s convoy in the process of overtaking them on the road.
Eyewitness account said that the driver of the Camry was overtaking some vehicles and in the process rammed into other on-coming vehicles, resulting in a multiple accident that left four people dead.
The traditional ruler and a teenager among the occupants of his vehicle were said to have been rushed to a hospital where they were said to be responding to treatment, following injuries sustained in the accident.
However, the remains of the dead had been deposited at the hospital mortuary.
Confirming the incident, the Chief Press Secretary to the Deputy Governor, Mr Daisi Ajayi, said the Olanusi was on his way to Ondo on official assignment when the incident occurred.
He said one of the security cars in the convoy and the deputy governor’s spare care were badly damaged in the incident.  
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the APGA chieftain, Okoye, was involved in the accident with his personal assistant, Mr Nelson Amechi, at the Enugu – Anambra border, along the Enugu – Onitsha expressway.
The vehicles involved in the head-on collision were a truck laden with scraps, with registration number XA 199 DMA, heading to Onitsha and Okoye’s Peugeot 406 with registration number AN 21B-AN.
Okoye was said to be in stable condition, while Amechi, who drove the vehicle, was receiving treatment for injury sustained at an undisclosed hospital.
The Unit Commander, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Mr Blaise Ezeani, who confirmed the accident, told NAN in Awka that both vehicles were in the corps’ office.