- ‘How I lost my two brothers to inferno’
The bustling Dikko Junction in Gurara Local Government Area of Niger State, known for its lively markets and commerce, has been devastated by the tanker explosion that occurred in the area last weekend. The tragic incident claimed no fewer than 98 lives and left 69 other people injured. Properties worth millions of naira were also destroyed.
For the affected business owners and residents, the scars run deep, and the losses are incalculable. Many of the residents also lost their relatives. One of them is Musa Aliyu who lost his two brothers while one other was seriously injured. At the time of writing, the injured one was still in critical condition in the hospital while the family members are in doubt of his ability to survive the first degree burns.
Mr. Michael Ondie, a provision shop owner at Dikko Junction, said it was his quick thinking and action that saved his family from being consumed in the fire. His shop was, however, not spared from the tragic incident.
Recalling the events of that fateful morning with a heavy heart, Ondie said: “It was around 8 or 9 a.m. when we saw the tanker leave the road and was about climbing the bridge. It then fell and fuel began to pour out.
“When I saw that fuel was rushing down towards my shop, I told my children who were arranging our goods for the day to get out of the shop and go to the other side of the road.
“When they refused, I had to chase them out. By this time, people had started to gather. I do not know where they came from.
“So many of them gathered and they began to scoop fuel with different containers. I was shouting that the thing could explode but no one listened.
“Women, children and all from other places were struggling to scoop fuel, and rather than run for safety, more and more people were coming with containers to scoop fuel.
“My repeated warning that they should leave because the tanker could explode was not heeded.”
Ondie said the situation soon got out of control in spite of intervention from security agents. He said: “Security agents, including policemen and vigilantes, began to drag and chase people away, but they were overpowered.
“There was little else they could do, because as the people were dragging with them and more were still coming with some even threatening to engage them in physical combat, the security men were left with no option but to leave them.
“The tanker owners tried to discharge the fuel into another truck, using two pumping machines. But even while that was going on, the people were still struggling to scoop their shares of the fuel.
“The tanker fell at about 9 am but it was not until around 11 am that the explosion occurred.
“For those two hours the security agents on ground were trying to chase them away to no avail.
“There were even some touts who insisted that boys from outside the area would not benefit from the fuel which was pouring.
“They swore that there would be trouble of those other boys dared come close to the place.
“Some people who heard the threat started running away, knowing that it would not be a pleasant experience if the touts should start their trouble.
“But it was not the touts that started the fire. It just started unexpectedly from under the tanker.
“The fire was not caused by generator spark as everyone is saying; it came from the back of the truck. The fire just appear from the under the tanker, then it started burning.
“As people were running, the fire was following them. Even some passersby were affected. Someone caught by fire would run into another person and the person too would catch fire.
“My house is across the road, but one of my daughters who had plugged her phone inside the shop ran there to pick it, but before she could even reach that mango tree, the fire had affected her and her two legs burnt up to her back.
“As I am speaking to you, she is lying at the hospital in Dutse, which is where I am coming from.”
Recounting his losses, Ondie said: “My shop is what our family depends on for our needs.
The deep freezers, crates of drinks, bags of charcoal, bags of rice and other goods worth more than N2.5 million were all reduced to ashes.
“Now I don’t know how the government can assist us in this. Even my daughter that is hospitalised is another of my major concern. I am fighting for her to get well.
“Whatever the government can do for us, we will appreciate.”
The daughter of Ondie who was affected by fire, 16 years old Favour, wondered how her family would now cope with their main source of livelihood gone. “The shop has been our only means of survival for the past 17 years,” she said.
“My father used it to feed and train us. He does not have any job apart from the shop.
“In the last 17 years that is where my dad has been feeding and training us.
“Now that the shop is burnt, we don’t have anywhere to go again. We have nowhere to turn to.
“I just want to plead with the government to help us rebuild,” she pleaded, nursing the injuries she sustained while trying to escape from the fire.
For Mr. Yahuza Danladi, a maize grinder who had invested heavily in his machines and produce, the incident has left him and his family on the brink.
Danladi said: “This place has a machine for grinding maize. There is also a cold room with two machines.
“I had 100 bags of maize, 17 bags of cassava, 80 bags of dusa and 15 bags of luku, but everything is gone.
“My family and workers depend on this business to survive. Now we have nothing,” he lamented, estimating his losses at nearly N20 million.
Aliyu Mohamed, a scrap dealer, also shared his despair, saying “I lost properties worth ₦1.5 million. This business was my livelihood; the source from which I fed my family.
“Now I don’t know where to start from. I need help.”
Musa Aliyu’s residence is close to the place of the incident. While the fire did not get to his house, his household suffered a bigger calamity with two of his brothers burnt in the inferno and one other lying in critical condition in the hospital.
He said: “One of my brothers burnt in the fire was not involved in scooping fuel. He had only gone there to tell the younger ones to return home when he heard that they had gone there to scoop fuel.
“It was while he was there that the fire began and he was caught in it.”
Musa said one of his deceased brothers had six children and one wife while the second one had three children, wondering what would become of the children now that their breadwinners are gone.
“My third brother is still lying critically in the hospital and no one knows if he will survive or not. In fact, everyone in the hospital is praying because those who are in the hospital are in critical situation and we hope they will survive.”
The Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), in its last press release on the extent of the disaster, stated that 20 shops were destroyed and countless livelihoods impacted.
“This is a devastating incident for the community,” the Director General, Abdullahi Baba Arah, said.
NSEMA also disclosed that 98 people died in the tanker explosion, saying that the death count as at 12 pm on Monday stood at 98 while the injured were 69 in number.
Some sources in Dikko said that the deceased were not all among those who had gone to scoop fuel from the fallen tanker, adding that some innocent bystanders and shop owners were also affected by the explosion.
Residents and business owners are now calling on the government for urgent assistance. They also want stricter regulations for tanker drivers and immediate support to rebuild their lives.
“This is the third tanker explosion in this area within a year,” Ondie noted. “The recklessness of drivers needs to stop. We can’t keep living in fear.”
As the community mourns its dead and struggles to rise from the ashes, the plea for help is loud and clear.
For the people of Dikko, rebuilding isn’t just about recovering properties, it is about reclaiming their lives and hope for the future.
