Prominent Ijaw highlife musician Barrister Smooth, has lost five members of his band in a horrific motor accident along the Abuja-Lokoja Expressway. The incident occurred on Sunday June 11, 2023.
National Point gathered that the band was billed to perform at the inauguration of National Assembly members from Delta State, who were sworn in Tuesday, June 13, 2023.They were reported to have been travelling to Abuja from Lokoja in a Sienna bus which ran into a petrol tanker on the highway.
The band members killed include the popular Ikesima Brown, a lady with a beautiful voice, well-loved for her rendition of the tunes of highlife maestro Rex Jim Lawson, who died in 1971 in a horrific car accident at Urhamigbe on the Asaba-Benin Road on his way to Warri for a performance.
Other members of the band who died include Appah A. Appah, who was also a councilor representing Ward 8, Patani Local Government Area. Yet others, are Chief Joseph Ekeremieye, Ebis Awiki, Tuku Eniekebi.
The crew had reportedly boarded a train from Warri to Lokoja, Kogi State from where they got on the Sienna bus to complete the journey to Abuja, before the accident occurred.
In another sad development, four supporters of the Bayelsa Queens Football Club lost their lives in a car crash on the Kwale-Asaba Highway on the same, baleful Sunday, June 11, 2023.
Bayelsa State governor, Douye Diri expressed deep sadness over the loss of promising lives describing the day as, Black Sunday.
