Nineteen people were, on Sunday, burnt to death in an auto crash along the Okene-Lokoja highway in Kogi state.

In a statement by Jonas Agwu, its public education officer, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) said the accident involved a Dangote truck with registration details NSH680YJ and a Toyota Hiace bus with registration number KMC455ZE.

According to the FRSC, both vehicles suffered a head-on collision after a route violation by the truck, resulting in an inferno.

The agency said out of the all-male 22 passengers involved in the accident, three were rescued.

“The TYT bus loaded from Kano was on its lane on the highway when the Dangote Truck driver who drove all the way from Port Harcourt wrongfully overtook a vehicle & collided head-on with the bus. The impact of the collision resulted in an inferno that burnt the victims to death,” the statement reads.

“Unfortunately, 19 people out of the 22 victims were killed and 1 injured. The remaining 2 victims who got rescued by FRSC operatives without injuries survived the crash because they complied with traffic regulations on compulsory use of seatbelt.

“The corpses of the dead victims whose lives were claimed by the crash have been deposited at Okene General Hospital.”

Dauda Biu, the FRSC corps marshal, said the agency will continue its ongoing prosecution of drivers “who by their actions cause road traffic crashes in Nigeria”.

Biu further called on the judiciary and leadership of transport unions and other relevant stakeholders in the road transportation sector to join hands with the corps to ensure speedy and effective prosecution of offenders.

A man, simply identified as Azeez, has allegedly jumped into the lagoon in Lagos and drowned while trying to evade arrest for stealing some bags of cement.

The Spokesperson of the Police Command in Lagos, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed this on Sunday.

Hundeyin said that the Director in charge of Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) operations in Lagos Central, (name not mentioned), reported the case to Ikoyi Police Division on Friday at about 12.20 p.m.

Hundeyin said that the director reported that at about 10.45 a.m. on Friday, he received a call that there was an incident at Lekki/Ikoyi Link Bridge.

According to him, on getting to the scene, he met a large crowd gathered by the waterside, watching the lifeless body of a man who had drowned.

“The deceased was later identified as Azeez. He was later confirmed dead by paramedics of Pre Hospital Care, Lagos.

“It was discovered that one Elijah Amos, the seller of the cement, was pursuing the deceased before he jumped into the Lagoon because he was alleged to have stolen some bags of cement,” Hundeyin said.

Hundeyin said that the scene was visited by the police, while the corpse had been evacuated to Mainland General Hospital Mortuary, Yaba, for autopsy and preservation.

He added that an investigation into the case was in progress.

Olatosho Oshoffa, the son of the founder of the Celestial Church of Christ, Worldwide, Bilewu Oshoffa, has shared his thoughts concerning polygamy in the church, saying the church doesn’t forbid the practice.

The shepherd of CCC International Headquarters, Ketu, Lagos, while defending his late father’s large family declared that no prophets in the Bible had one wife.

“Can I tell you something… (sic)? You see, in that scripture, Paul was only advising. Tell me in the Bible, which prophet of God had only one wife? Do your research and tell me,” Oshoffa said.

The late Oshoffa left 13 wives and 53 children behind raising concern about his lifestyle even as the leader of one of Nigeria’s Christian congregations.

However, Tosho, as the younger Oshoffa is also called, dismissed such concern, saying that despite his late father already having three wives, God still gave him the vision to start his ministry 76 years ago.

“I am sure in 1947 if there was a better candidate to found CCC, Oshoffa wouldn’t have been chosen.

“But because there wasn’t a better candidate, he was the only one that God found worthy to found CCC, despite having three wives. So those condemning my father should know that he never had any concubine.

“He married them (his wives), and they were all under his roof. But today, the so-called men of God with only one wife will have concubines outside.

“Which one is better? So, I will tell you that if God were to judge by the number of wives before sending a bishop or pastor on a mission, my father would have been disqualified because he had three wives before God called him,” he stated.

When asked how his father was able to keep his large family closely knitted, he said his father never trained the children from different mothers.

“Let me tell you something, my dear brother. Our father, while on earth, used to gather us together and tell us, never say you are a son or daughter to any of my wives. But tell yourself, you are a son of Oshoffa.

“This means he used that girdle of love to tie us together. So we don’t see ourselves as children of our various mothers but as children of Oshoffa. That is the same way we related when he (Oshoffa) was still in this world and has been doing after his demise.

“Even today, the remaining Oshoffa wives that were younger than my mother, I still refer to them as my mother, because of the love that our father (Oshoffa) has used to bind us together. So, we all remain one as SBJ Oshoffa children,” he added.

On the leadership crisis rocking the celestial church, the cleric said such a crisis was expected after the departure of the founder. He was, however, hopeful that the problems would soon be resolved.

He, however, declared that his eldest brother, Rev. Emmanuel Oshoffa, is the leader of the church.

“Now, when the founder of this church departed, the same way Jesus Christ departed, there were troubles among the apostles about who would lead.

“The same way as well that according to history, the Catholic Church at a time had multiple Popes. But today, they have only one Pope after so many centuries.

“This is the same situation with CCC. After the demise of its founder, there was so much trouble. The apostles also faced the same challenges on succession as those of the Catholic Church.

“…But as of today, the most acclaimed and accepted leader in CCC all over the world is the first son of the founder, my eldest brother, Rev. Emmanuel Oshoffa, who is based in Imeko, Ketu, and Makoko, the headquarters of the church,” he added