Olayomi Koiki
More than 90 people have been killed and 50 others injured after a gasoline tanker overturned in northern Nigeria and sparked an explosion as dozens of people rushed to the vehicle to scoop up the fuel, police said Wednesday.
The explosion occurred past midnight in Jigawa state’s Majiya town after the tanker driver lost control of the vehicle while traveling on a highway close to a university, Jigawa State Police Command’s spokesman Lawan Adam said.
Deadly tanker accidents are common in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, where traffic regulations are not strictly enforced in many places and there is a lack of alternatives such as an efficient railway system to transport cargo.
It is also common for people to salvage fuel after such accidents, especially with Nigeria’s soaring fuel prices.
Residents who heard about the latest accident rushed to the scene and were scooping up fuel, “sparking a massive inferno that killed 94 people on the spot,” Adam said.
Videos that appeared to be from the scene showed a massive fire stretching across the entire area, with what appeared to be bodies littered at the scene.Elsewhere in the southwestern Ogun State, at least three persons reportedly sustained varying degrees of injuries in an early morning fire incident along the Ibafo axis of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, triggered by a petrol tanker fire.
The fire reportedly destroyed vehicles worth millions of naira, as well as houses and animals.
Ogun State Police Command’s spokeswoman Omolola Odutola said the tanker driver sustained injuries and was taken to the hospital.
“The incident involved a Fiat truck, but the driver’s name and address are currently unknown. The accident occurred when the driver lost control of the steering and collided with the roadside curb. The truck, believed to be carrying petrol, fell over and caught fire. The fire spread to the truck and eventually engulfed it,” Odutola told local newspaper The Punch.
“Additionally, the fire reached the Osadol Petrol Station, damaging two trucks parked outside. At the time of the incident, the fire service was contacted, but community members and police officers managed to bring the fire under control while awaiting their arrival. The truck driver has been taken to Real Divine Touch Hospital in Ibafo for medical treatment.”