Niger compensates accident victims with N11.1m

The Niger State Government on Monday put smiles on the faces of relatives of accident victims and survivors.
Nine persons involved in an accident on August 17, 2013 along the Minna-Bida Road were given N11.1 million by the state government.
The General Manager of Niger State Transport Authority, Alhaji Umar Usman Nagogo, disclosed this in Minna while presenting cheques to the deceased families in his office.
Nagogo said each victims’ family would go home with N1.3 million while the only survivor was given N700,000.
It should be recalled that the state-owned 14 seater bus had a head on collusion with a truck along the Minna-Bida Road while returning from Lagos on August 17, 2013.
It claimed lives of eight passengers.
Nagogo disclosed that the NSTA insurance company, Mansard Insurance Plc, paid the victims N6.9 million while the state government added N4.2 million.
According to Nagogo: “The insurance company gave N800,000 to each deceased and N500,000 for the survivor as the State Government gave N500,000 to each person that died and N200,000 for the injured.”
Receiving the cheque in tears on behalf of his late wife and three children that died in the accident, Pastor Abraham Samuel appreciated the gesture of the government and the efforts of Nagogo for their concern.
Samuel said: “It is a sign that death has no warning.
“The advantage we have over death is that our lives will not be a waste.
“Again, we’ve accepted it with faith.
“We believe God permitted it or else there would be a way out.”
While presenting the cheques to the families of deceased, the Permanent Secretary, Niger State Ministry of Transportation, Hajiya Safiya M. Bawa, noted that human lives cannot be paid for and that the State Government sympathized with them.
Bawa said the cash payment was just to cushion the effect of the loss of their beloved ones.
Two National Youth Service Corps members also lost their lives in the accident as the only survivor, Abubakar Shettima, a student of Saint Margret Secondary School, Lagos, said: “I came out through the window.
“My survival was the work of God.”
Engineer Jethro Koji, who is the Loss Adjuster of Mansard Insurance Plc, stated that the insurance company has also given N1 million to the NSTA for the vehicle.
Koji said the truck company will give NSTA N3.4 million compensation as part of cushioning the effect of the accident.