Athletes, coaches and officials are among 22 people killed in a road accident in northern Nigeria as they returned from the country\u2019s National Sports Festival on Saturday, local authorities have said. <\/p>\n
Others were left \u201cseriously injured\u201d by the accident, according to a statement issued by Kano\u2019s government office. The majority of the victims were young, it added. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is with a deeply saddened heart that I received the tragic news of the unfortunate incident which claimed the lives of 22 innocent citizens and left several others injured,\u201d Abba Kabir Yusuf, governor of Kano State, said in the statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cOn behalf of the government and the good people of Kano State, I extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased. We mourn with you and share in your grief,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n
The accident was a \u201clone road crash that might have occurred as a result of fatigue and excessive speed,\u201d Nigeria\u2019s Federal Road Safety Corps said in a statement. The crash occurred at 12:30 a.m. local time Saturday (7:30 p.m. Friday ET), the statement said. <\/p>\n
The athletes killed in the crash were returning home after \u201crepresenting their state with distinction,\u201d Nigeria\u2019s National Sports Commission (NSC) said in a statement posted to Instagram. The commission said it was \u201cdeeply heartbroken\u201d by the \u201ctragic road accident.\u201d <\/p>\n
The victims \u201ccarried the hope of a brighter future for our nation through their passion and commitment to excellence in sports,\u201d NSC chairperson Mallam Dikko said. \u201cIt is our duty to ensure such heroes are never forgotten.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sports clubs including Kano Pillars, Kano\u2019s local soccer team, and the Nigeria Tennis Federation have also posted their condolences online. <\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s 22nd National Sports Festival was held in Ogun State in the southwest of the country, according to the NSC. After 11 days of events, the competition held its closing ceremony on Thursday, the NSC said. <\/p>\n
Monday will be a day of mourning for \u201cthe good people of Kano to pray and sympathize with the families of the victims,\u201d its governor announced. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Athletes, coaches and officials are among 22 people killed in a road accident in northern Nigeria as they returned from the country\u2019s National Sports Festival on Saturday, local authorities have said. Others were left \u201cseriously…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}