Bodies of five prospective corps members who died in an auto-crash set for burial in Akwa Ibom yesterday. They travelled by road in the dead of the night to beat camp registration deadline in faraway Katsina, Yet, their remains were airlifted to their final resting place. This is the irony of Nigeria!
There was free flow of tears and expression of grief in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, as the bodies of five prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, who died in a road accident, in a cruel twist of fate, arrived the state for interment in a C-130 Nigerian Air Force jet marked NAF917 and landed at the Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo, around 12:19p.m., yesterday.
Many couldn’t hold back tears as the bodies, draped in the national and NYSC flags, were lowered from the jet. The finality of a botched dream for the young lads, who had looked forward to donning the NYSC khakis and serve their fatherland for a year, sunk in as gloom enveloped the airport.
The deceased, who were on their way to the NYSC camp in Katsina State, were involved in an accident along Abaji-Kwali Expressway, Abuja. The deceased included Innocent Upere and Victor Akpan, both graduates of Mass Communication, Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic; Miracle Asuquo, graduate of Psychology; Stella Ekikoh, graduate of Sociology and Anthropology and Coleman Ezuruike, graduate of History and International Studies, the three were graduates of the University of Uyo.