Tragic fate: Two friends plan to marry same day, die same day

Two childhood friends in Bauchi State who planned to marry same day have died in a fatal automobile accident- on the same day! John Siman Dangana, 36, and his bosom friend, Maita’aziya Rufai Sabo, 35, died on Sunday, March 7, 2010, two kilometres from Bauchi.


They were coming from Bogoro, their country home after visiting their aged parents.

Dongara, a 2006 Banking and Finance graduate of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi and Lecturer with the Tatari Ali Polytechnic, Bauchi, was driving his red Honda Civic car on that fateful day.

He had met his friend, Sabo, who also graduated from the same university in Geology Department in 2004 and a few other friends in Jos, Plateu State, the previous day for a wedding.

After the wedding, Sabo planned to travel back to Zamfara State from Jos where he worked with the NYSC to enable him participate in the current orientation for the 2010 corps members.

If only Sabo knew that death was calling, he would not have changed his mind and agreed to accompany Dangana to Bogoro from Jos to see their parents and proceed to Gusau the following morning. They were joined in the ill-fated car by two other friends in Jos - Peter Ishaya Nggada and Dogara Ishaya, who miraculously survived.

As the four friends hit the road, they had memorable moments as they chatted lively while Dangana drove on.

They drove through Jos, Mangu and eventually arrived Bogoro.

The four also discussed final plans for Ishaya’s wedding slated for April 10, 2010.

Dangana told Ishaya that Peter, and not him, should be his best man.

Ishaya stunned, thought Dangana was joking as they had already worked out the details of how he would be the perfect best man on his wedding.

Dangana explained that instead, he would be busy doing other things to make the wedding a success so being his best man would tie him down. He suggested he should handle that task.

The friends continued the debate until they got to Bogoro.

When they got to the parents’ house, his mother asked him about the issue of getting married and he stressed that he was going to marry soon and of course, on the same day with Dangana.

Then the friends continued their journey and just about two kilometres to Bauchi, the worst happened.

Nggada, who sustained a broken knee and bruises, told Daily Sun that he woke up to find himself at the Specialist Hospital, Bauchi.

He was sitting at the back of the seat with Ishaya:

“I can’t remember what happened between Tafawa Balewa and Bauchi.

“I received the greatest shock of my life to find myself in the hospital. I don’t know how I found myself there.”

Naggada, who hails from Borno State, said when he asked Dauda, a friend sitting by his bed and was told what happened, he was very surprised.

“I got to know about their death on Wednesday,” he said tearfully.

He said he could only recall that he travelled with the others from Jos through Mangu in Plateau State after the wedding:

“Normally, Dangana avoided overspeeding. I don’t know how it happened. I will miss him so much.

“There was one lady in Mangu that he was planning to marry and we joked that our children will marry each other and we will raise our families together.

“As if he knew he would die because he was supposed to be Ishaya’s best man but he told Dogara that day that I should be the one. Now I have no choice but to obey his wish”

While he lost his senses momentarily following the accident, Ishaya, whose wedding plans have been suspended in the meantime, recalled vividly how it happened.

Ishaya told Daily Sun: “It was around 7 pm that day as we approached Bauchi.

“What happened was that there was a truck coming in the opposite direction and a vehicle tried to overtake.

“This was around the WAEC office at the first gate of the Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi.

“When overtaking, he saw our vehicle coming and he got confused while tried to avoid it by moving to the shoulder of our lane but he still moved towards that direction and we had a head-on collision.”

Dangana died on the spot and according to an eyewitness, the steering hit him badly on his chest.

The Honda car was a complete wreck as the front was mangled, the impact of which killed the two friends. The driver of the Opel car survived with a broken leg.

Ishaya’s elder brother, Ayuba said he received a phone call from his younger sister that his brother and his friends were involved in an accident:

“I immediately rushed to the Specialist Hospital, Bauchi, where they were admitted.

“When I got there, I could only recognise John through his leg.

His entire face was covered with blood beyond recognition and his two legs were broken and twisted.”

“I saw my brother sitting down holding his head. Obviously he had been attended to. But was screaming in pains that he was dying.

“He was calling on doctors to save him. I saw Peter, he was not in his senses. He could not recognise anybody and he did not remember what happened:

“He was in a pathetic state and I knew he could only make it by the special grace of God.”

Around 11 pm, Sabo died joining his bosom friend, Dangana, in the great beyond and putting paid to a friendship that had been described as “one in a million” by friends and relations.

“I managed to get him and went to his place to encourage him but he gave up,” Ishaya who later woke up about an hour later after the accident, recalled.

“They were really a role model for the rest of us. They were selfless, reliable, honest hardworking and driven,” Dauda, close friends of the deceased told Daily Sun.

Ayuba said he was surprised when doctors said Ishaya could go home even with injuries he sustained.

Ishaya, who is referred for orthopaedic treatment even as his wedding plans have been suspended has been warned by doctors not to put his left leg on the ground for the next three months.

“I was told that I have a tear in my pelvis,” he said.

As the remains of these two friends arrived Tafawa Balewa town and bom in Bogoro, thousands came to pay their last respect.

In Tafawa Balewa, a church service was held at the Living Faith Church (aka Winners Chapel) presided over by Rev. David Pam, Resident Pastor, Bauchi and Pastor Glory John who admonished their families to rejoice that their sons led lives worth emulating.

Testimonies and goodwill messages also came from the deceased’s employers all of whom paid glowing tributes.

But these soothing words could not hold back the tears of friends and family members. They were interned at their family burial ground.