The management, players and coaches of Rangers International F.C are full of thanks to God for His divine intervention in protecting the players and officials of Akwa United F.C whose luxury bus they were travelling in to honor a match day 15 NPFL 2021 fixture got involved in a ghastly auto accident along Enugu-Onitsha express way, near Iva-Valley, Enugu, Friday.

General Manager/CEO of the ‘Flying Antelopes’, Prince Davidson Owumi, who was out of the state for an official function concerning the burial of Late Barr. Richard Nwabufo Obienu, on learning of the near-fatal incident, mandated the team manager and other management staff to the spot of the accident for any needed assistance.

Four players and two officials sustained injuries and were immediately taken to Enugu State University of Science and Technology Teaching Hospital at Park Lane in Enugu for treatment.

Later on, men of the Enugu Sector Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps, removed the vehicles from the accident scene for free flow of traffic from the notorious Onyeama Mines hills laced with pot-holes.

Top marksman for the Uyo side, Ndifereke Effiong, defense lynchpin, Olisah Ndah and two other players were being attended to, while the assistant driver and assistant coach were also receiving treatment on bruises they sustained.

Team Manager of Rangers, Barrister Amobi Ezeaku who visited the injured at the hospital, sympathized with the team and thanked God for their lives stressing,

“Rangers International F.C board and management led by Davison Owumi, the General Manager, sympathize with the management of Akwa United over the unfortunate incident.”

The young team manager further said, “I first of all, thank God for preserving the lives of the players and officials because the accident was not an easy one. I have seen the players and the official, they are all stable and everything is under control. We cannot take away the fact that our roads are death traps and accidents of this nature claim lives but God did His miracle in this situation.”

He thanked God that the players and officials sustained minor injuries and not death.

Ezeaku said the rate of accidents on the road by clubs in this new season is worrisome.

Emphasizing, “We must find an easier way of making trips to away matches to alleviate the plights of players and officials on road transportation. Bad roads, banditry and other vices are issues to tackle, I believe that the League Management Company should look into the plight of road travelling. Club owners are not left out of this and they need to be sensitive to the plight and I hope that in the future, trips to matches will be made easy through the use of air flights or rails for trips exceeding six hours.”

Former players of the Uyo based side and its sister club, Dakkada F.C who are now with the Coal City side, also came out to help out in one way or another for their brothers.

The bus the team was travelling had a head-on collision with a Mercedes Benz 911 Water tanker returning from 9th Mile and the impact of the collision threw the bus towards a parked fuel tanker laden with aviation fuel that was headed for the Akanu Ibiam International airport Enugu.