Tragedy struck in Minna, the Niger State capital, on Monday when a 58-year-old woman, Mrs. Esther Abubakar, died after waiting for several hours on queue at a filling station.
Our correspondent gathered that Abubakar, who until her death was a worker with the state’s Ministry of Health was in the queue for about four hours at a filling station at the Western Bye Pass in Minna.
It was learnt that she subsequently left for another filling station to procure fuel meant for her Honda Civic car when she met her death.
According to an eye-witness, “After purchasing the fuel, she stretched her hand from inside the car to pay the dealer and slumped with her seat belt on.â€Â
Passersby who were able to identify the woman, believed to be a younger sister of Dr. Lucas Bahago, a Special Adviser on Health to Governor Babangida Aliyu, went to her residence to inform the family members of the development.
The deceased’s nephew, one Hunpani Bahago, who was the first family member to get to the scene said, “Nobody touched her, as her seat belt was strapped round her when I got there: I called her: Mummy, Mummy, but she couldn’t respond.
“People were just standing around, nobody, probably out of fear or shock get closer to her. So, I had to remove the seat belt from her and with other family members who later joined me and drove her home.â€Â
He said the family doctor was immediately invited and after medical examination certified her dead.
Bahago said that the remains of the deceased, who was survived by four children and husband, had been deposited at the mortuary of the Minna General Hospital.
By Punch