Woman crushes three children to death in Church, send others to emergency ward

 
June 20,2017

By Ijendu Iheaka

An unnamed woman driving an SUV on Sunday killed three children inside the premises of the Hall of Harvest Parish of Redeemed Christian Church of God at No 103 Omuma road, Aba.

Our reporter observed that three other children involved in the mysterious accident were receiving medical care at the emergency ward of a hospital in the neighbourhood.

Pastor Joseph Ugboaja of the Hall of Harvest parish, Abia Provice 2, told our reporter that he was on a pulpit exchange programme in another parish church when he was informed of the accident.

Ugboaja said that he did not know exactly what happened but he was sure the claim that five children died in the accident was false.

“When I rushed to the scene, I learnt that a woman learning to drive and was not perfect yet had an SUV while going to Church that Sunday.

“On trying to negotiate the bend where the church is, she lost control of the vehicle and with the speed she was driving, plunged into the premises where children were sitting in Church and crushed three children to death.

“Three other children sustained injuries and are now in the hospital. One broke her arm and two were in critical conditions on Monday but today, they have become more stable although they are in pain”, he said.

Ugboaja said that the church had been in touch with the families of the dead children and those in the hospital stressing they have been doing the best they could to comfort them.

“There is no amount of words that can comfort them completely but our prayer is that God will comfort them and we pray that such a tragedy will not happen again to us”, he added.

Ugboaja said that two of the crushed children were buried on Sunday and Monday while one was still under police custody in the mortuary because the father of the child was not at home.

 On the issue of the building being a haunted house where its occupants have been dying yearly by fire accidents and other mysterious deaths, the pastor said the building’s status is left for God.

He said he would not speculate adding that although the Church was planning to move because of its size before the accident, it had been there since 2002 without any such occurrence. 

He said that with the present situation, the church authorities will assess the situation and know how to ensure the church moved out of the building.

A witness, Mr Chima Monday, said that the incident happened around 9 am and that the ash colour vehicle failed brake and crushed the three children to death on the spot.

He attributed the accident to bad roads and begged Abia state government to help rehabilitate Omuma road to reduce such fatal accidents.

When contacted for confirmation of the accident, the Abia State Police PRO, DSP Geoffery Ogbonna said that the accident happened on Sunday during Church service hours.

The Police spokesman further said he was told that only one child died in the accident adding that the woman who drove the vehicle has been taken into custody while investigations are ongoing.