Sep 06, 2011 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States

ANN staff

Seventh-day Adventist Church officials in East Nigeria are soliciting prayers for the families of four members of the Nigerian Association of Adventist Students, who died in a bus accident August 28.

The bus carrying students home from the group's annual public evangelism effort in southeast Nigeria was struck in a head-on collision by another bus near Calabar. The accident immediately killed three students, church officials said. Poor road conditions are blamed for the accident, which saw nine students rushed to an area hospital, where a fourth died shortly after, they said.

Seven of the remaining eight students have "improved considerably" since the accident and are now recovering at home, church officials said. The eighth student is still in the hospital with a broken leg, they said.

Shortly after the accident, Bassey Udoh, Adventist Church president for East Nigeria, visited the students in the hospital, as well as the families of the students who died.

Established in 1990, The Nigerian Association of Adventist Students includes Adventists studying at all of Nigeria's universities. The group provides a support system for Adventist students on secular campuses and coordinates campus outreach efforts. Members hold an annual public outreach event during summer vacation.

More than 280,000 Adventists live in Nigeria.

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