This followed the death of 16 indigenes of Dambatta Local Government Area of Kano on Thursday, who were returning to their state from Abuja.

The Kano State government had said the travellers died on the Abuja-Kaduna Highway, as a result of an attack from unidentified gunmen.

In their separate reactions, the Kaduna State government and the police command faulted the position of the Kano State government.

In a statement on Friday, the Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs in Kaduna, Samuel Aruwan, described the statement credited to Kano State as incorrect and misleading.

He insisted that the Kano indigenes perished in a road accident and were not killed by gunmen on the Kaduna-Abuja Road.

The Police Public Relations Officer in Kaduna, Muhammad Jalige, also said in a statement that the travellers had a fatal road accident at the Rigachukun area along the Kaduna-Zaria expressway.

He stated that the driver of the commercial hummer bus conveying the travellers lost control and the vehicle fell into a ditch.

“The Command expresses its deepest condolences to the government and good people of Kano State on the unfortunate incident and prays that may God in his infinite mercy repose the souls of the deceased and give their immediate family the fortitude to bear the irreparable lost.

“It is with the deepest sense of responsibility that the command is responding to the misinformation making round in public domain attributing the unfortunate incident to killing by unknown gunmen,” the command spokesman said.

According to Jalige, nine passengers died on the spot while 10 others who sustained varying degrees of injuries were immediately rushed to a hospital in Kaduna metropolis.

He noted that seven more passengers who were critically injured died while receiving treatment at the medical facility.

The command’s spokesman confirmed that a total of 16 people lost their lives from the accident, while three persons survived and were being treated.

“The command, by this release, states the facts as it happened and implore the general public to discontinue the attribution of this painful loss of life to banditry as it received the news of the shocking incident with empathy but needed to make the clarifications on the matters bothering on national security to allay the fears and apprehension the misleading information must have put in the minds of people and road users,” he added.