Akwa Ibom - The Chairman of Ibeno Local Government of Akwa Ibom, Mr Henry Nko, has pledged the council’s readiness to settle the medical bills of seven primary school pupils injured in a ghastly motor accident.
Nko made the pledge when he visited the survivors on their sick bed at the Cottage Hospital, Ibeno, on Wednesday.
The state police public relations officer, Mr Dickson Etim, dispelled rumours that eight school pupils had died in the accident.
He said that only a pupil died while seven others sustained various degrees of injury.
The bus conveying the children to school was involved in an accident along Ibeno-Edo road last Thursday.
Etim told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in a telephone interview on Wednesday in Eket that only one child died in the accident, while the seven injured were responding to treatment in the hospital.
``Our investigations on the accident showed that one child died, while seven others who survived are receiving treatment at the Cottage Hospital in Ibeno, near the accident scene,” Etim said.
Nko, who also donated food items and toiletries to assist the accident victims, commended the hospital staff for providing adequate attention to the children.
A NAN correspondent who visited Kingdom Heritage School, Eket, on Wednesday, reports that normal academic activities were ongoing even as the school management declined comments on the incident.
Meanwhile, NAN learnt that officials of the Inspectorate Division of the state Ministry of Education had visited the schools to investigate the incident.
NAN