PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan ordered immediate supply of relief materials to surviving victims of a massive tanker explosion in Okobe, Rivers State, on Thursday, as efforts continue to be made to attend to the surviving casualties of the explosion.
Expressing sadness over yet another mass loss of lives to such explosion, federal relief and health agencies were directed by a “distraught” President Jonathan “to do everything possible to ensure that all those who survived the explosion with burns and injuries receive prompt and effective medical attention.”
A Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps in the Rivers State, Mr. Kayode Olagunju, revealed in a post on Facebook that the tanker crashed into three other vehicles at Okobe, on Ahoada-Mbiamae East-West road in Rivers state around 6:30am local time in Nigeria, and that residents threw caution to the wind and rushed to the scene of the explosion to scoop Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol from the scene.
Up to 95 people have so far been confirmed dead from the ensuing inferno.
“Casualty figures on the Okobe tanker crash on Ahoada -Mbiama on the East-West road in Rivers state as at 13:00 hrs. 93 died on the spot (burnt), 2 died in the hospital, making 95 deaths, while 18 persons were injured. 4 vehicles, (1 tanker, 1 Toyota corolla car, 1 Hummer bus and 1 Mitsubushi bus) and 34 motorcycles were burnt. High casualties recorded as people were scooping fuel from the crashed trailer when the tanker exploded,” said Mr. Olagunju on Facebook.
The fire has since been brought under control.
The incident in Rivers State is the latest in a long line of similar tragedies in Nigeria involving the lives of thousands of Nigerians at the scene of gasoline explosions.
“Some troops who got to the crash site before the fire broke out told people to clear off”, but many ignored the warning, an official from the National Emergency Management Agency said.
Forces from the military’s Joint Task Force “got to the scene before us. They warned people to leave the scene to avoid disaster. But many of them were busy scooping fuel. They disobeyed,” the official, Emenike Umesi explained.
The state’s information commissioner Ibim Semenitari said the fire had been put out but emergency services were still trying “to clear the carnage.”
“More than 100 people were killed in the inferno from the petrol tanker, while around 50 with severe burns have been hospitalised,” she said.
Some of those taken to the hospital were burned beyond recognition, while others appeared treatable, said Geoffrey Ikogha a local chief in Ahoada, near the oil hub of Port Harcourt.
He confirmed that women and children were among those killed.
The crowd of relatives and sympathisers at the General Hospital in Ahoada was huge, with many sobbing uncontrollably, Ikogha recounted.
“Security people are having tough time controlling the surging crowd,” added Ikogha. “The situation is tragic and pathetic.”
Many of the dead were motorcycle taxi operators, known locally as “Okada”, who raced to fill up their tanks after learning of the crash, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.
Motorcycle taxi driver Kingsley Jafure said the vehicle collision occurred at roughly 6:00 am, and the spilled petrol caught fire about 90 minutes later, but officials said the time between the crash and the blaze was shorter.
“At about 7:30 while I was inside trying to decide whether to go (scoop fuel) or not. That is when I saw that the tanker exploded,” Jafure said.
Major accidents, often involving large-haul trucks, are common in Nigeria, where many of the roads are in terrible condition.
Lorries plying the country’s roads are often old and poorly maintained and road worthiness checks are scant.
Abandoned trucks, some of them destroyed by heavy collisions, can regularly be seen along major Nigerian motorways.
Olagunju of the road safety agency declined to comment on state of the roads in the area, or the potential causes of the crash, saying he did want to undermine the investigation that has been launched.
In March, a petrol tanker caught fire after skidding off the road in southern Port Harcourt, killing six people and injuring several others.
In April last year, a fuel tanker overturned at an army checkpoint in the central part of the country, sparking an inferno in which some 50 people were killed.
More than 17,000 people died in about 31,000 road accidents across Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, between 2007 and 2009, according to the road federal road safety agency’s 2010 report, the most recent published.
The agency said more than 73,000 were injured in these accidents during the period.