No fewer than 30 officials and players of Kwara United on Wednesday escaped death by a whisker following an auto accident involving their coaster bus and a stationary truck at Moniya, Ibadan.
Our correspondents learnt that the Ilorin team were returning home from Lagos where they featured in the Nigeria National League Super 4 when their bus ran into the truck on the Ibadan-Oyo Expressway.
Sources said the driver of the bus was trying to avoid a speeding vehicle from the other end of the road when the accident occurred.
The media officer of the club, Mr. Abdulwaheed Bibire, who confirmed the accident in a statement, said one Kwara United player and two officials sustained varying degrees of injury and were taken to hospital for medical treatment.
Bibire said the remaining officials and players, who did not sustain injuries, were later conveyed by another vehicle to Ilorin.
“The driver ran the bus into a stationary truck in an attempt to avoid a speeding vehicle, which was coming from the other end of the road,” the club chief told one of our correspondents on the telephone.
He said the accident would not affect the side’s opening Premier League match against Niger Tornadoes in Ilorin on Sunday.
“We don’t expect that the accident should affect our first league match of the season on Sunday. Since the bulk of the players needed to play the match were not injured, they should be able to play the match,” he said.
“They will be attended to by the psychologist before Sunday to ensure that the accident does not affect any of them negatively.”