7 players, Coach, injured in Anambra auto crash
No fewer than seven persons escaped death when a vehicle conveying players and Coach of Community Secondary School (CSS) Aguluezechukwu, Aguata Local Government Area had an accident along Oba-Nnewi road.
The team was going to the final of this year’s Anambra Academicals Football competition on Saturday, when 7 of the affected persons sustained various degrees of injuries, including spinal cord.
Those injured in the crash where rushed to a private hospital at Oba but were later referred to Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH), Awka due to the seriousness of their cases.
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday, the Chief Medical Director, COOUTH, Dr Lawrence Ikeako, who was personally attending to the patients, said that efforts were being made to save the situation.
Ikeako said the hospital could manage some of the cases but for the Coach of the team, Benson Udeh, who had a spinal cord injury and needed to be referred to a specialist hospital.
He described Udeh’s case as complicated and promised to provide every medical assistance possible to ensure he was stable and moved to an appropriate facility. Udeh is also the Coach of Anambra Gymnastics team and had taken them to National competitions, where they won laurels.
The Commissioner for Education, Prof. Kate Omenugha, described the accident as ‘unfortunate’ and that the state government was doing everything possible to save their lives.
In the final matches of the Anambra Academicals soccer competition, CSS Aguluezechukwu lost to CSS Isu-Anocha, Awka North Local Government Area, 6-7 on penalties in the male category, while Ogbunka Community Secondary School, Orumba North defeated Ogidi Girls’ Secondary School, Idemili North, 1-0 in the female category.
