GOMOA-BUDUBURAM - The Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. John Agyeman Kufuor, last Sunday escaped unhurt when the convoy in which he was travelling from the Central Region to Accra was involved in an accident. The accident which occurred at Gomoa Buduburam in the Central Region in the evening, however, claimed the lives of three persons with an unspecified number of others sustaining varying degrees of injury.

A source at the NPP headquarters which confirmed this to the Graphic yesterday said Mr. Anthony Freeman, a cameraman on Mr. Kufuor’s campaign team, who received deep cuts, was treated and discharged at the Winneba Government Hospital. Three other persons reported to be bodyguards of Mr. Kufuor were also reported to have been admitted at the hospital where they are said to be responding to treatment.

Whilst the deceased had, at the time of going to press, not yet been identified by the police and authorities at the Winneba Hospital, the NPP source was emphatic that they were all occupants of a taxi cab which, it said, was central to the occurrence of the accident.

The source said two vehicles in Mr. Kufuor’s convoy were also seriously damaged in the accident and that the one in which Mr. Kufuor was travelling was only slightly dented.

An eyewitness, who spoke to the Graphic at Agona Nyarkrom, yesterday said Mr. Kufuor was in a convoy heading towards Accra from Winneba after addressing an NPP rally when the accident occurred around 10 p.m.

According to the eyewitness, on reaching a spot near Buduburam Mr. Kufuor’s convoy encountered a taxi cab being driven towards Winneba without any of its headlamps on.

As if confused, the driver almost immediately, veered the taxi from its side and grazed the side of a brand new Mitsubishi vehicle carrying the NPP flagbearer and then went into a headed-on collision with two other vehicles in the convoy, the eyewitness said.

The eye-witness said that three persons in the taxi cab died on the spot whilst others in the other two vehicles in the convoy, sustained varying degrees of injury and were rushed to the Winneba Government Hospital for medical attention.

The party source disclosed that because of the accident, Mr. Kufuor was compelled to stay overnight at Winneba.

Mr. Kufuor, however, continued with his Central Regional campaign tour on Monday and is expected to round it off on Friday.