following the death of three journalists in an auto crash on Friday, the

Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo state council has declared 7-day

mourning.The deceased had met their untimely death in a ghastly

accident at Osu area, near Ilesa, OsunState.

NUJ Secretary, Comrade Rotimi Babalola in a statement stated that the seven day mourning commences Saturday and will last till Friday, August 9th after

which special interdenominational prayers would be offered for the repose of

the victims; quick recovery of the injured ones and to forestall future

occurrence of such incident among the journalists. It added that all activities including social events have been suspended forthwith at the Press Centre, Iyaganku, Ibadan while condolence register has also been opened at Executive Chambers of the union for members to pay their respect for their dead colleagues.

It would be recalled that following the incident, the victims were rushed to

the Osun State GeneralHospital, Ilesa, from where they were referred to the University College Hospital (UCH),Ibadan, where the injured victims are currently receiving treatment.

Narrating their experience, the chairman of the NUJ, Oyo State council, Mr.

Gbenga Opadotun said "We are coming from Abuja where we held a meeting and

by the time our vehicle got to Osun area, the rear tyre of our bus burst and the vehicle veered off the road before we somersaulted about eight to nine times and finally crashed in the bush".

"It was a terrible experience because we lost three of our members in the

accident. The rest of us involved in the accident survived by the grace of

God", he said.

At the emergency unit of UCH on Sunday, doctors and nurses made

frantic efforts to attend to the survivors of the accident, while the President NUJ, The  Commissioner for Information Oyo State ,Pastor Otegbeye , Zonal Director of NTA Ibadan Network Centre, Chairman of CEOAFRICA.COM, Mr Cletus Ilobanafor, Former  Deputy Governor of Oyo State Kazeem Gbolarumi, CEO of BCOS, Mr Yanju Adegbite  and other colleagues were seen at accident  and emergency unit of UCH to mobilized support and care for the injured officials. Some officials of the NUJ, mostly from Oyo and Lagos State councils were on Friday involved in a fatal auto crash which left Adolphous Okonkwo, who was the national financial secretary of the union, Kafayat Odunsi from the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) Victoria Island, Lagos and the chairman of the Radio Nigeria, Ibadan Network Centre of the NUJ, Tunde Oluwanike died in the incident.

Journalists involved in the accidents were Banji Oluwalana, NTA7, Lagos; Bolaji Akeem, NTA7, Lagos; late Adolphus Okonkwo, National  Financial Secretary; Sylva Okereke, Champion; Odunsi Muhammed,New Nigeria; late Kafayat Odunsi, NTA Victorial Island, Lagos;

Deji Elumoye, Chairman, NUJ Lagos; Gbenga Opadotun, Chairan, NUJ Oyo; late Tunde Oluwanike, FRCN, Ibadan; Bimbo Oyetunde, FRCN Lagos; Nzeogwu Christopher,

VON, Fatimah Abdulkareem –National Treasurer and Adeyemi Fatai, Lagos Bus