Badagry accident: Hospital releases accident victims to relatives
"Their relatives from Benin Republic came to identify them and later brought a police report, saying they wanted to continue their treatment at home in Cotonou."
On Sunday night, the management of General Hospital Badagry, near Lagos State, released the bodies of 15 dead passengers to their relatives.
Dr. Olatunde Bakare, the Medical Director of the hospital, made the disclosure in an interview on Monday in Badagry.
Bakare added that eight other injured passengers had also been discharged and handed over to their relatives.
The remnant of Mazda commercial bus where 15 passengers lost their lives on Sunday morning along Lagos Badagry expressway
He said relatives of the discharged passengers had insisted on taking them to the Benin Republic for further treatment.
According to the medical director, 13 passengers were brought to the hospital dead, while 10 of them were gravely injured.
“We started treating them immediately, but unfortunately, two of them gave up the ghost during the treatment, making the number of dead increase to 15 altogether.
“Their relatives from Benin Republic came to identify them and later brought a police report, saying they wanted to continue their treatment at home in Cotonou.
“They also brought Police reports asking us to release their dead bodies to them so that they could go and bury them at home.
“So, eight treated passengers and 15 dead bodies involved in a fatal accident on Sunday morning have been released to their relatives, and they have taken them to Benin Republic,” he said.
Bakare said that the injured passengers enjoyed free medical treatment, courtesy of the Lagos State Government and the General Hospital, Badagry.
He stated, "We did not collect money from any of them; the Lagos State Government and the General Hospital paid for all the drugs, blood, and services rendered."
Supreme News reports that no fewer than 14 people, including a four-month-old baby, died on Sunday morning in an auto accident along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway in Lagos.
Mr. Williams Manga, Unit Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps, disclosed this in Badagry on Sunday.
Manga said that nine other people sustained injuries in the accident, which occurred at Agemowo axis of the road at about 7:31 a.m.
He said a Mazda commercial bus with registration number MUS 411 XU, carrying 19 passengers, traveling from the Lagos end, collided with a granite-filled truck with registration number AKM 926YQ, coming from the Badagry end of the highway.