Murjanatu Zubairu, a 400-level female student of the University of Abuja, who was reported missing on Friday, has been confirmed dead in a car accident along the Lugbe – Airport Road in Abuja.
Zubairu, enrolled in the Department of Arts Education within the Faculty of Education, left her residence for school on Friday, but her whereabouts remained unknown until Monday.
Confirming her demise during a phone conversation with Daily Trust late Monday, her uncle, Zubairu Yewuti, a former vice chairman of Kwali Area Council of the FCT, stated, “Murja’s family contacted me in the afternoon and confirmed that she passed away in an accident on the Lugbe – Airport Road last Friday. They identified her body at the mortuary of the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital.”
Yewuti mentioned that arrangements had been made by the family to retrieve Zubairu’s body from the morgue for proper burial.
The accident, which took place on Friday at 8:34 p.m., involved a Toyota Sharon bus near the Dunamis Church along the Airport Road.
According to Sunday Ajokotola, the Lugbe Unit Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, the speeding bus suddenly caught fire, resulting in the deaths of four individuals, including a female passenger, at the scene.
Ajokotola added that six out of the ten occupants of the bus who sustained burns were rescued by Airforce personnel and subsequently treated in their hospital.
Yewuti explained that Zubairu’s parents contacted him to inquire about her whereabouts, as they were unable to reach her on her phone since she left home at Piwoyi on her way to school. Despite their efforts to locate her, her phone remained switched off.
The family had reported Zubairu’s disappearance to both the university management and security agencies, urging the public to report any sightings to the nearest police station.
When contacted for comment, the spokesperson for the FCT Police Command, SP Adeh Josephine, promised to provide further information at a later time.
In a separate incident, Emeka Ndinwa, a final-year student of the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Port Harcourt, was reported missing by his family in Delta State in late December 2023. Despite extensive efforts to locate him, his whereabouts remain unknown.
