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Three lives were lost in an auto crash that occurred on Saturday along the Ife-Ilesa Expressway in Osun State, while about 20 people were injured in the crash.

The Osun Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Sunday Adebayo, who confirmed the casualty figure during a telephone interview, said the two vehicles involved had a head-on collision.

Adebayo, who said the FRSC team arrived at the scene of the crash about five minutes after it occurred in the Tonkere area, blamed speeding and dangerous driving for the accident.

The Osun FRSC boss further disclosed that the two vehicles involved in the accident had been taken to the nearest police division to the scene of the accident, adding that the remains of the deceased were deposited at the morgue of Wesley Guild Hospital in Ilesa.

He also said the 20 injured commuters were taken to the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, and Seventh Day Adventist Hospital, also located in Ife, for medical attention.

Giving other facts about the accident, Adebayo said, “Three people died. Altogether, we have about 20 others who were injured in the crash.

“The deceased were two females and one male. We have 11 females in that vehicle and nine other males. Three children: two males, one female. All the other 20 sustained different degrees of injury.

It was a head-on collusion involving a Toyota Hiace and a car. The incident happened around Tonkere between Ife and Ilesha. We mobilised our patrol vehicles from Ilesha and Ife for the rescue operation.

“Some of the survivors sustained minor injuries and were discharged. The vehicles have been moved to the police station in Ife, and the road has been cleared for movement. The response time from FRSC was five minutes. Our boys got to that place through one of the members of the public, and they quickly moved on because we were already on the road by the time the incident happened.”

Advising the road users against acts that can lead to accidents, Adebayo urged drivers not to engage in acts that would lead to avoidable loss of lives.

“If you look at the road structure at the time of the occurrence, you see that there is no reason for that high fatality. Nigerians need to change their attitudes on the road. Excessive speeding is killing. The accident happened due to over-speeding and dangerous driving

“There was no need for such an accident on the road if Nigerians can change their attitude. But we will continue to tell road users that they should change their attitude to the way they usually speed on the road,” the Sector Commander said.

He continued, “If you go at a lower speed, if you have cause to be involved in a crash, the fatality will not be as much as what we saw this morning. Nigerians should respect other road users.

“They should have this shared responsibility that everybody has a right to use the road. The person who is safe on arrival is the person who knows how to drive.”

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TOTAL darkness looming as several parts of Abuja will experience a temporary power outage on Sunday, September 6, 2026, as the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) carries out scheduled maintenance at the 132kV Apo Transmission Substation.

TCN announced the planned outage in a statement shared on X on Saturday, saying the maintenance would take place between 9:00am and 5:00pm.

According to the transmission company, the exercise will involve the stringing and latching of Optical Ground Wire (OPGW) on the two 132kV Katampe–Apo Transmission Lines, Lines 1 and 2, between towers T130 and T132.

TCN said the maintenance would temporarily affect electricity supply to residents and businesses in Lugbe, Garki, Area 1, National Hospital, Guzape, Asokoro and surrounding areas.

The company explained that the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) would be unable to off-take electricity for distribution to customers in the affected areas during the exercise.

“Consequently, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) will be unable to off-take electricity for supply to customers in Lugbe, Garki, Area 1, National Hospital, Guzape, Asokoro, and surrounding areas during the exercise,” TCN said.

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Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC, Atiku Abubakar, has vowed to constitute an independent team of experts to trace ₦33.75 billion reportedly paid to 3.29 million vulnerable Nigerian households, after an audit report raised questions over whether the money actually reached its intended beneficiaries.

In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, on Saturday, the former vice president said the audit findings amounted to a devastating indictment of a government that took away the poor man’s subsidy, increased his taxes and tariffs, promised support, and is now confronted with serious questions over whether that support ever reached him.

Shaibu quoted Atiku as saying the figures themselves expose the cruelty and inadequacy of the intervention, noting that ₦33.75 billion divided among 3.29 million households amounts to barely ₦10,258 per household.

According to the statement, after removing subsidy, driving up transport fares, electricity costs and food prices, the President Bola Tinubu administration’s supposed intervention amounts to roughly ₦10,000 per household, and even that sum has now failed to withstand basic audit scrutiny.

“This is beyond a bookkeeping scandal. The intervention is insultingly small, yet even that small amount cannot be cleanly accounted for. If money meant for hungry Nigerians cannot be satisfactorily traced while access to records required for accountability is frustrated, then what we are witnessing is unapologetic wickedness against the poor. You cannot punish people with hardship and then play hide-and-seek with money appropriated in their name,” Atiku said.

He, however, commended the Auditor-General of the Federation, Shaakaa Chira, appointed by the Tinubu administration in October 2023, for putting his constitutional responsibility above political convenience. “That is what institutions are supposed to do — protect the public purse, not the political comfort of those in power,” he said.

He noted that the situation was made more disturbing by the government’s own claim that more than ₦600 billion had been disbursed to over 10 million households, after Nigerians had earlier been told about 15 million households.

“It now appears that the Tinubu administration cannot give Nigerians a coherent account of how many households actually benefited from its intervention programme, while significant portions of the expenditure have failed to withstand independent audit scrutiny,” he said, insisting that “a ministerial announcement is not proof of payment. A name on a social register is not a bank alert.”

Atiku said the Auditor-General was reportedly questioning ₦33.75 billion supposedly paid to 3.29 million beneficiaries, alongside ₦36.74 billion in payments reportedly made without pre-payment audit and ₦4.62 billion for which payment vouchers were not produced. “These cannot be dismissed as another set of bogus figures buried in government accounts. These are resources appropriated in the name of poor Nigerians who desperately need protection from a cost-of-living crisis aggravated by this administration’s rash economic policies,” he said.

Explaining the rationale for the planned probe, he said Nigerians could not reasonably be expected to trust the same government whose expenditure was under question to investigate itself.

He said, “My team will constitute an independent group of financial, audit, technology and public-accounting experts to interrogate the available records surrounding these cash-transfer payments. We will follow the money as far as the available public and institutional records permit. We will examine the beneficiary figures, payment channels, reconciliation records, audit queries and every material inconsistency that has emerged. When that work is completed, we will furnish Nigerians with the findings.

“There must be no black box around the poor man’s money. If Remita processed these transactions, the relevant records should be available for scrutiny. If beneficiaries received the money, there should be evidence. If access to records was obstructed, Nigerians deserve to know by whom and why.”

Atiku argued that what Nigerians needed was not another palliative announcement but purchasing power, and an economic policy that reduces what they spend daily on transportation, food and energy, leaving more money in the pockets of ordinary families.

“Our intervention will follow production. It will support domestic refining, increase local supply, reduce the cost of energy and ensure that the benefit reaches Nigerians through lower prices. When fuel costs fall, transportation costs ease; when transportation costs ease, pressure on food prices and household budgets reduces,” he said.

He maintained that the Tinubu administration could not take away the little subsidy that supported struggling families, tax them heavily, increase electricity and transportation costs, and then obstruct accountability over the intervention supposedly designed to cushion those burdens.

Atiku demanded that if the beneficiaries were genuine, government should publish the verifiable payment trail, and if the money did not reach them, it should be recovered. “And if investigation establishes that any official diverted, misapplied or misappropriated funds meant for vulnerable Nigerians, that official must face prosecution. The poor have already paid enough through higher fuel prices, food costs, electricity bills, transportation fares and taxes. They must not also be made to lose the money appropriated in their name,” he said.