The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Tanker

  • Tanker Accident: 32 unclaimed victims buried In mass grave

    Tanker Accident: 32 unclaimed victims buried In mass grave

    The 32 unclaimed bodies of the victims of the May 31 petrol tanker accident at Upper Iweka, Anambra State, were laid to rest in a mass grave at Afor Adike field, Obosi Cemetery in Idemili North Local Government Area yesterday.

    The victims were burnt beyond recognition.

    The burial, sponsored by Anambra State government, drew sympathizers from across the state, including government functionaries who were present to witness the ceremony.

    The bodies were laid in caskets with a 21-gun salute to commence the solemn occasion.

    Addressing the gathering, the state Governor, Willie Obiano, who was the chief mourner, recounted the gory tale of the petrol tanker accident of May 31 which claimed over 50 lives, expressing deep sadness over the incident.

    The Governor said that the burial of the unclaimed bodies came to be as, in spite of series of announcement, nobody came to claim them.

    He called for caution on the part of heavy duty truck drivers and reiterated the ban on fuel tankers delivering products during day time.

    The bodies were taken to Obosi cemetery where a mass grave was prepared for the 32 bodies.

    The governor bade them a final farewell with the dust to dust rites and erected a cenotaph as a memorial for the victims.

  • Tanker driver burnt to death in road mishap

    A tanker driver conveying petrol to an unknown destination was on Saturday burnt to death in a road mishap that occurred at the Ovia River head bridge along Benin-Ore-Lagos express road.

    Three vehicles including a heavy duty tow truck belonging to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) were burnt.

    The fire was still on as at press 3.28pm on Saturday.

    Officials of the FRSC had to divert motorists going and returning from Lagos to link Benin City through Iguobazuwa road at Okada junction.

    Edo Sector Commander of the FRSC, Familoni Oluwasusi, said the fire occurred when the tanker fully loaded with fuel hit the tow truck used for clearing two previous accidents on the road.

    Familoni said the tanker driver lost control despite diversion and obstruction placed on the road to warn motorists that its officials were clearing vehicles involved in multiple accidents.

    He said a truck conveying diesel fell on the road on Friday evening and after it was partially cleared, two other vehicles had accident almost at the same spot.

    The Edo FRSC boss stated that it was in the process of clearing the vehicles that the tanker driver rammed into the two trucks and caused the fire.

    He said his men escaped with injuries but the tanker driver was not lucky.

    According to him, “His corpse is still burning and clearing of obstruction is ongoing. The injured has been taken to the hospital for treatment.

    “Patrol team blocked the road to remove a crashed truck when the trailer carrying fuel lost control and hit the FRSC two truck which resulted in fire outbreak,” he said.

  • Another tanker falls in Lagos

    Another tanker falls in Lagos

    Another tanker laden with petrol fell in front of a filling station at Oribawa bus stop on Lekki-Epe Expressway yesterday.

    It spilled its cintent all over the road. No life was lost.

    Immediately, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) cordonned off the area, warning residents, commuters and others to keep away from the scene to avoid fire outbreak.

    Victims of last Saturday’s petrol tanker explosion, which razed 34 houses and 70 shops at Idimu, Lagos State, remained in shock yesterday.

    A tanker, loaded with 33,000 litres of petrol fell, spilling its contents and wreaking havoc on the neighbourhood.

    Grief-stricken, most of them stood in groups discussing their ill fate as they beheld the charred remains of their valuables.

    They, however, rested their hope on the promise by the state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, to assuage their agony when he visited the scene last Saturday.

    Ambode, during the visit, promised to meet with tanker drivers today in his bid to stem petrol tanker explosion.

    After the visit, Ambode said: “We don’t want this to repeat itself. We have said it before; we need to address our tanker drivers and start to enforce our traffic laws. I have directed that the union of tanker drivers and the government meet on Monday (today) morning and we must make pronouncement relating to the usage of our roads.”

    The governor promised: “I commiserate with all the people here. I appeal for calm. We would do immediate relief; we would take enumeration and see in what ways we can address your pain. We would do everything in our power to do everything to help them get back to their normal lives.”

    Ambode, who was accompanied by his Deputy, Dr Idiat Adebule, expressed concerns over the spate of fallen petrol tankers in the state, noting that Saturday’s incident came a few days after that of Iyana Ipaja in which several shops and vehicles destroyed.

    “This is another unfortunate incident happening within one week. It is unfortunate in the sense that we are beginning to lose a lot of our assets and property to fire,” he said.

    Meanwhile, another tanker fell in front of a filling station at Lakowe on Lekki-Epe Expressway yesterday.

    It spilled its cintent all over the road. No life was lost.

  • Tanker explosions killing like Boko Haram, says NLC faction

    The Joe Ajaero faction of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said the rate at which tanker explosions is taking the lives of innocent citizens is not different from the activities of the Boko Haram sect.

    In a statement yesterday, the Deputy President of the NLC faction and General Secretary, Textile Workers Union, Issa Aremu, said: “Congress joins all Nigerians to condole with hundreds of victims of the recent unacceptable criminal serial tanker explosions.

    “NLC, however, demands that governance preventive measures through urgent revival of domestic refineries, railway and road transportation infrastructure, enforcement of road/driving rules are the panacea to the unacceptable killing of innocent Nigerians without official declaration of war.

    “Tankers’ explosions had unacceptably taken lives just as many as Boko Haram insurgency does in recent times.

    “Indeed what we have at hand were not ‘accidents’, but avoidable incidents due to lack of good governance with respect to the mismanaged petroleum  downstream sub-sector.”

    Aremu said the country must urgently reinvent the refineries “and put an end to shameful explosion-prone petroleum products importation”.

    He added: “We must return to the era in which petroleum products were moved from refineries through protected pipelines to depots at short distances, which put less burden on drivers and no risk at all on communities.

    “It is bad that we import petroleum products. However, it is worse that Nigeria moves highly inflammable products, (which are indeed mobile bombs!), through hundreds of bad roads.

    “It is a peculiar Nigerian underdevelopment that must stop with the new administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    “Rail transportation remains one of the cheapest and safest inter-city means of transportation of products and humans. Buhari and Osibanjo presidency must hit the ground running and deepen the ongoing revival of the railways through public investment.

    “The solution is not in privatising the railways. You don’t privatise what is yet to be built. President Buhari must avoid the pitfall of dogmatic privatisation that does not add value to national well-being whatsoever but enriches few individuals.

    “Nigerian railway still runs on narrow gauge with the maximum of between 25 – 35 km per hour unlike standard gauge and high speed trains in China. Nigeria Railway requires massive injection of funds to upgrade its tracks to standard gauge and modernise the wagon and haulage facilities.

    He noted that if fixed, railways can also absorb hundreds of thousands of jobs for the millions of unemployed youths under the Buhari dispensation.

    “A country that proudly shares excess crude receipts among all tires of government should certainly spend this excess to fix the bad roads.

    “As a matter of right, not favour or charity, NLC demands that government must urgently compensate all the victims of these avoidable carnages either in Onitsha or Lagos,” he said.

  • Evacuation of Anambra tanker fire victims ends

    Evacuation of Anambra tanker fire victims ends

    After last Sunday’s tragic tanker accident, a team of agencies has finally moved all the bodies to a teaching hospital in Nnewi, as Vice President Yemi Osinbajo visits. NWANOSIKE ONU reports

    One phase of the tanker horror is over: evacuation of bodies.

    Five days ago, a petrol-laden tanker exploded at the busy Upper Iweka Roundabout in Onitsha, Anambra State’s commercial hub. Casualty figure varied, depending on who you talked to, but many held that about 70 people perished in the disaster.

    Some have dubbed it a Black Sunday. As soon as the tragedy happened, evacuation of the dead became a pressing need. The Red Cross and other agencies and first responders teamed up to move the bodies out of fire scene to the hospital. The process continued from that Sunday up till Tuesday when it was confirmed that the bodies were taken to the Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, the state’s industrial town.

    It was a horrible day for everyone in the state and beyond. Officials of als the Federal Road Safety commission (FRSC), Red Cross and even passersby had a hectic day.

    •One of the victims at the hospital
    •One of the victims at the hospital

    Anguish was spread; thousands wailed. Bodies were mangled, many charred and fire fighters, for the first time in the state, worked overtime trying to save some lives.

    With evacuation wrapped up, another phase has begun: taking care of the injured and relatives of the dead.

    Anambra State government led the way in responding to relatives of the victims. Governor Willie Obiano said the government would foot the bill of patients in the hospital. He also banned trucks from plying the roads in the daytime.

    On Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari sent his deputy Prof Yemi Osinbajo to Anambra to felicitate with the state and people. The Vice President also said the Federal Government would help relatives of the victims.

    The vice chairman of the Red Cross, Prof Peter Katchy, who spoke with The Nation, said 70 people died in the incident. FRSC’s head of operations in Onitsha, Obinani Ezekannagha, said they counted 45 dead. Eyewitnesses, though, said over 100 people died in the incident.

    The incident forced Governor Obiano to cancel all his engagements on the day; he also wept when he arrived at the scene.

    He has taken over the bills of all the causalities in the various hospitals in the state, including Boromeo hospital at Old Nkpor Road and Toronto Hospital located along Enugu-Onitsha Expressway not far from the accident scene.

    Some victims are still battling to survive at Toronto Hospital, while two have been discharged, according to the Medical Director and Chief Executive of the hospital Dr. Emeka Ezeh.

    Two newspaper vendors and two circulation officers, all members of Onitsha Newspaper Distribution, Directors Association (ONDDA) in the commercial city lost their lives in the accident.

    The vice chairman of the group, Emmanuel Uwakwe, who confirmed this to The Nation, gave their names as Ifeanyi Nzekwe; Ifeoma; a  local man and a new member of the association.

    He said: “We are in pains and agony right now; we also went to the hospital to visit the injured ones.”

    The vice chairman of the Red Cross in the state, Prof Peter Katchy, told The Nation two days after the incident that 57 persons had been identified by their families, while 13 were yet to be identified.

    This was corroborated by the CEO of the Toronto Hospital Dr. Eze, who said family members identified some of the relatives by the ornaments they wore.

    One of such persons was a woman who died in the fire incident with her little baby she was carrying.

    •Nkiruka Ezeh, searching for her sister
    •Nkiruka Ezeh, searching for her sister

    Ezeh told The Nation that the hospital had stopped relations and others from going to see the patients who are in stable conditions in order not to contract infections because of the severity of the cases.

    Furthermore, he said the hospital would not be able to release any corpse to relations or discharge any patient unless instruction was passed to the hospital by the state ministry of health.

    After the second day of the fire incident, relations of the affected victims had been trickling to the Toronto hospital, Boromeo hospital, both in Onitsha and Nnamdi Azikiwe teaching hospital to see if they could identify their own.

    Red Cross chief in Anambra, Prof. Katchy said he and his members will not rest until they were sure everything was going right in managing the incident.

    The Red Cross volunteers moved from Onitsha to Nnewi teaching hospital where pathologists have started the process of forensic analysis, according to Prof Katchy.

    Miss Nkiruka Ezeh, who hails from Nkanu in Enugu State, was at the Toronto hospital to search for her sister, Nkechi Eze, who left their Awada residence on that fateful day to Asaba, Delta state.

    Her sister’s mission was to see their in-law, one Ogbonna Igwe, a motor parts dealer.

    In tears, she told The Nation that since she left the house, nobody had seen her including their in-law who denied seeing her at Asaba.

    Also, Nkiruka Eze said everybody had been calling the telephone number of her sister without getting any response, adding that they have been  worried since then.

    For Amaechi Alor, a trader at Mgbuka spare parts market in Onitsha, the situation is the same as he came in the company of other distant relations to the hospital to see a nephew, Chukwudi Nwanga.

    Nwanga survived the tanker fire incident on Sunday, but was still going the medical process at Toronto hospital.

    Though Obiano was said to have taken up the responsibility of offsetting the medical bills of the victims, Alor, told The Nation at the hospital that he spent N3,750 on drugs on Monday while another N14,000 drugs had been prescribed by the hospital for him to purchase.

    However, the Special Adviser to Governor Obiano, Mr. James Ezeh, told The Nation that Obiano had been working round the clock in making sure that things were put in the right perspective.

    Ezeh said the state ministry of health and the hospital management should liaise well in making sure that immediate action is taken in ensuring that the bills are appropriately taken care of as the governor said.

    Ezeh further told The Nation that Obiano had not been able to visit the victims again because of pressing government matters, adding that the governor had been sending his aides to those areas on a daily basis.

    Already the order by Governor Obiano to remove all the 12 burnt vehicles at the fire scene to the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has been carried out, as all the burnt vehicles have been taken to the agency’s office in Awka.

    The fire incident scene has become a tourist centre at Upper Iweka by Anambra residents and indeed, foreigners since the incident took place.

    The office of the transporters was burnt including the 12 toilets built by the federal ministry of works inside the premises which had not been commissioned till date.

  • 69 die, 15 vehicles burnt in Onitsha petrol tanker fire

    69 die, 15 vehicles burnt in Onitsha petrol tanker fire

    Onitsha the Southeast’s commercial capital, was thrown into mourning yesterday as no fewer than 50 persons were burnt to death from the fire that broke out after a fuel-laden tanker rammed into a building.

    At least 15 L300 buses were also burnt. The tragedy occurred at about 3pm at Upper Iweka Roundabout when the tanker conveying fuel to Asaba in Delta State fell and got burnt.

    Governor Willie Obiano, who rushed to the scene, was moved to tears.

    The burnt buses were parked inside the motor park. Three motorcycles were also burnt.

    Residents gathered at the scene, crying as rescue efforts were ongoing.

    Among the dead were an expectant woman and little children, it was learnt.

    Most of the victims were passengers and readers at a newspaper stand.

    The Nigerian Red Cross Society Chairman in Anambra State, Prof. Peter Emeka Kathy, confirming the death toll said:  ”We have 69 burnt to death persons as at now. There are also 30 injured in the hospitals.

    The dead have been evaluated to various mortuaries in Onitsha, from Toronto to St Charles Boromneo Mortuaries and others in town”.

    He said the bodies will be evacuated tomorrow from the mortuaries to the teaching hospital for the necessary tests “because many of them were burnt beyond recognition.”  According to an eye witness, Victor Ugwummadu, the driver of the tanker was descending the Upper Iweka flyover from the Enugu-Nkpor end of the expressway when he lost control of the vehicle.

    Ugwummadu said the tanker caught fire a few minutes after hitting into the building.

    It is believed that the tanker’s brakes may have collapsed.

    Anambra State Police Commissioner Hosea Karma was at Upper Iweka with top security chiefs as the charred remains of the victims were being evacuated by Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) officials.

    Another eye witness, Sunday Ogbuji, described the incident as “terrible”.

    As at 5.15pm yesterday, the charred bodies were still being evacuated by security and paramilitary operatives to nearby Toronto Hospital at Upper Iweka.

    Police chief Hosea Karma described the incident as “a tragedy which is unfortunate”.

    According to him, the tanker was coming from Oguta Road end of Onitsha and was trying to link Owerri Road with loaded PMS. It lost control, falling on top of the building. It caught fire.

    The police chief said all the passengers inside those buses – he put the figure at 12 – were burnt beyond recognition.

    He added that the injured were immediately rushed to a nearby hospital. He did not mention the hospital’s name.

    Karma did not give the total figure of the dead, saying evacuation and mop-up was ongoing.

    Commissioner for Transport Chief Chuma Mbonu described the incident at Upper Iweka as “tragic” and “unfortunate”.

    He confirmed that 14 vehicles were burnt and scores trapped.

    Karna did not disclose the number of the dead, saying the announcement would be made after the government must have got the right figure.

     

  • 15 die in Ibadan tanker fire

    15 die in Ibadan tanker fire

    •Man loses wife, three kids 

    •20 vehicles, 23 motorcycles, others destroyed

    It was all tears yesterday, as 15 people, including a family of three children and their mother, were burnt to death in a petrol tanker fire on Saturday night at Molete, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

    The tanker was said to be coming from Challenge-Molete end of the road when the driver lost control.

    The vehicle then somersaulted and caught fire, spilling its fuel content, spread into a mechanic workshop, shopping mall and otherareas.

    A middle-aged man, who parked his vehicle to buy bread, lost the three children and his wife when the fire enveloped the family’s car.

    Over 20 vehicles, 23 motorcycles, many shops and goods worth several millions of naira were also destroyed.

    It took the intervention of the state fire-fighters to stem the spread of the fire into other thickly populated residential areas.

    Eyewitness said government and private ambulances conveyed some of the burnt victims to the University College Hospital (UCH) in the state capital, where they are receiving treatment at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) .

    “It is God’s protection that is most important. Many, who died, never dreamt of this. Imagine a man that travelled from Ijebu-Ode to this place and only to stop to buy what he would eat, it was then the fire came, claiming his three children and his wife.

    “It is a terrible incident. I was discussing with my friends, when we suddenly heard a deafening sound and people ran out of fear. But before five minutes, we saw fire covering everywhere. May God protect us from unforeseen occurrence,” an eyewitness, who gave his name as Ade, said yesterday.

    Governor Abiola Ajimobi visited the scene twice between Saturday night and yesterday morning to sympathise with those affected by the fire.

    Some policemen  prevented people from entering the area. A rope was tied to fence away intruders as policemen keep watch.

    But the governor commiserated with the families of those who were burnt to death.

    Ajimobi, who arrived at 8am, was visibly shaken by the gory sight. Accompanied by the Commissioner of Police Kola Sodipo, he was conducted round the scene of the inferno.

    He ordered that a crane be brought to take the carcass of the tanker, which had crossed the road from obstructing traffic.

    Ajimobi, who spoke with reporters, enjoined them “to take solace in the fact that death will come when it will.”

    He said that many who sought to take political advantage of his administration’s genuine love for the people, especially traders on the streets, must have seen the danger of politicising genuine government policies.

    “As I came here this morning, gentlemen of the press, you yourselves could hear statements from the crowd that gathered here. They keep shouting ‘And Ajimobi had warned us against street trading o!’ The problem we have is that politicians seek to profit from the lives of the people. Our administration has genuine love at heart for our people. This is manifesting itself gradually and our people themselves can see that love,” he said.

    The governor was told that the bulk of those who lost their lives were traders who refused to move to the nearby Scout Camp market, which had over a thousand stalls with modern conveniences built by the government and given to the traders free.

    “I sympathise with the dead and their families of the dead. This will show our love for the people in our desire to stop street trading. I learnt that a few days ago, another trailer veered off the road at Mobil area and hit the MTN building. If it had been before now when street traders gathered at the Mobil area, I imagine the number of casualties we would have been talking about,” he said.

    Government, he said, had seen through the hazards posed by street trading, stating that it was why his administration made it a kernel of its urban renewal exercise.

    “Apart from vehicles that skid off the road, killing our people, high tension wires also get cut and kill our people selling their wares by the road side. Our people should not listen to evil politicians who mislead them.

    “They should support us to fight the menace of street trading, by asking them to leave the road and we will not allow evil politicians to profit from this genuine love by misleading our people,” he said.

  • Tanker drivers threaten to shut fuel supplies

    Tanker drivers threaten to shut fuel supplies

    The Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has warned of an impending strike action in  Southsouth and Southeast parts of the country following the government’s failure to heed its call for urgent repairs of the Port Harcourt-Eleme junction , Okigwe-Umuahia and Jebba-Oloru-Ilorin roads in Rivers, Abia and Kwara states, respectively.

    They gave the warning in a statement signed by its National Chairman, Comrade Salimon Oladiti, after a meeting with executive members of the union in Abuja.

    Comrade Oladiti said the union executive has resolved to take action by ensuring that lifting or distribution of petroluem products in these axes are discontinued in the next two weeks if nothing is done to repair the roads and save its members from the continued carnage on such roads daily.

    The union said the roads had claimed the lives of some of its members and portend great danger to more members’ lives and properties. The deplorable state of the Port Harcourt- Eleme junction road with a distance of about 10 kilometers, he said, takes seven to eight hours of manoeuvring by trucks, many of which break down in the process, upturning contents, killing members and endangering the lives of several others using the road.

  • Another tanker accident at Aramoko -Ekiti claims lives

    Another tanker accident at Aramoko -Ekiti claims lives

    As another petrol tanker fell off its path, killing a minimum of six persons and destroying properties valued at millions of naira in Aramoko-Ekiti, Tuesday last week, fresh concerns were raised regarding the expediency of the completion of a long abandoned by-pass around the town by the Federal Government, writes SULAIMAN SALAWUDEEN

    It was a harrowing sight, horrible and apocalyptic. Dense smell of human beings and other objects roasted by the ill-fated petrol laden tanker the evening of the day before assailed the nostrils as the reporter moved amidst the rubble and beheld heaps of charred red bricks and metals which littered the scene.

    There it was still, the reason for the sorrow. Though burnt and misshapen, the tanker laden at the time it fell off the high way with thousands of litres of fuel still lay rooted to the spot where no less than six persons met their untimely end Tuesday, last week.

    The accident which, according to eye witnesses, occurred some minutes to 6 pm on the day also destroyed two buildings, two vehicles, about ten motorcycles and other valuables, all valued at about N10 million.

    Mr. Babatimilehin Bamidele, an occupant of one of the two burnt buildings, lamented his fate, saying “My diploma certificate and other important documents have gone. I just came back from a journey, undressed and came outside to get some fresh air.

    “I was outside, chatting with friends under that tree when the truck came with the message of destruction. I could not recover anything. This cloth I am wearing was donated to me. I came out with only the trousers and singlet.

    Some of the dead, according to findings, included one Pa Abiodun Ololade, 78 years, Kokoro Owo reportedly in his fifties and a teenager said to be one Gani Foto’s step child. So also was 16-year-old Ahmed Bakare, an SS2 student of Aramoko District Commercial Secondary School.

    Other losers, aside those who lost dear lives, was Mr. Agunbiade Kareem. His Toyota Corrola car which “they had proposed to buy from me at N1.4 million”, two plasma TVs, Sharp TV, 6 DSTV decoders and a sum of N513,000 in cash were  burnt.

    Another, Mrs. Arowosafe Kubrat, explained she just returned from Osogbo with her Honda Accord car, noting “hardly had I entered my house after parking the car than I heard a loud explosion.

    “Rushing outside, I could not see the car again. The truck had fallen on it. Inside it was a sum of N103,000, some tubers if yam, and a leather box containing various dresses. The particulars of the vehicle and those of another vehicle were inside the car”, Kubrat said.

    The two buildings burnt, going by findings, belonged to Mrs. Agunbiade Ayisat Abiodun Falade and Chief Ololade Odofin Ilure. Efforts made to reach them were unsuccessful.

    Such occurrences of goods bearing trucks falling off their paths and devastating life and property had continued to menace the people of the communities which lie on the highway from Itawure junction down to Erio, Aramoko, Igede and Iyin.

    Findings also revealed that scores of such had equally been recorded in other parts of the State as elsewhere in the country.

    Chief Ololade Isaac, the Aro Ilure, explained that no fewer than 25 of such trucks had at various times in the past fallen off,  killing people and destroying properties.

    “The problem has to do with the sloppy pattern of the road which is a natural thing. There is nothing anyone can do to the road. What can be done is to have an alternative route which will take the trucks off this road.

    “Each time it occurred like this, we cry and shout. At the end, nothing would be done. Nothing is ever being done and it is just because those who are responsible for the completion of the road have never been affected. If they are once, the next day, they will mobilise to site and complete whatever remain”, Chief Ololade said.

    According to a young man who identified himself as Sunday, the driver of the truck had been aware that the truck’s propeller had detached just as he entered the town from Ibadan-Ilesa end but could perhaps no longer control the truck as it kept coming down the sloppy portion of the road towards the town’s main junction.

    Sunday said: “We were there when the truck was coming down and the propeller kept scratching the road. We followed it to see how he would manage but the truck went where it wanted to go. Immediately it rolled off the road into the buildings, it emitted thick smoke and then caught fire”.

    Although, victims of the accident had been taken to the mortuary while some had been buried, findings revealed that the driver of the tanker who was first detained at Aramoko Divisional Police Station had been released. Investigations also showed that some of the dead victims were still at the mortuary of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH).

    However, while some residents vowed to stop the trucks from plying the main road as an immediate outrage against the accident, they were later pacified on the excuse that it would not be possible to stop them unless an alternative was created.

    As many indigenes of the town had commented and findings have shown, there is another road, a by-pass, which can serve as an alternative route for the trucks and which has been abandoned by the federal government for well over thirty years.

    Baba Tiamiyu Lawal, Mr. Olawale Falusi and Baba Timilehin Bamidele, residents of the town condemned the Federal Government for abandoning the by-pass which could have taken the trucks and other heavy duty vehicles away from the township road and prevent the incessant accidents

    Also stating the worries of the residents, the town’s monarch, Oba Olu Adeyemi, who accompanied the Deputy Governor, Prof. Modupe Adelabu to the scene the next day lamented that the Federal Government had awarded the construction of a road that would link Ado-Ekiti  from Itawure near Efon Alaaye and which would by-pass Aramoko, Erio, Igede and Iyin Ekiti  during the regime of Alhaji Shehu Shagari in the second republic.

    Oba Adeyemi said, “The road that passes through our town is not only hilly but winding and this has been causing a lot of accidents. I want to believe that if there is a by-pass, some of these accidents would be prevented. And I urge the Federal Government to revisit the contract to save my people from untimely death”.

    Although, efforts made to locate the officer in charge of federal roads in Ekiti State was unsuccessful, there appears to be readiness on the part of the State government to either reconstruct or complete the by-pass.

    The state Governor Kayode Fayemi, gave this indication while on a condolence visit to the families of the victims.

    According to the governor, the alternative route, a by-pass, would be embarked upon and completed soonest by the administration, to take the trucks off the current route which has menaced lives and properties in the town and other towns in the area.

    While blaming the Federal Government for failing to reimburse the Ekiti State government for the N12 billion it spent to fix federal roads, Fayemi said the state would have embarked on the construction of Iyin-Itawure road which was awarded during the Shagari era but has been abandoned.

    Said he, ”We clearly cannot continue this way. It also brings to the fore the challenges we are facing fixing federal government roads. This state, as challenging as things are for us, we are being owed more than 12 billion Naira for doing roads belonging to federal government.

    “If that money has been returned to us, we would have embarked on the new Iyin-Itawure road which we have in our own plans and that would have taken all the vehicles away from this place so that our people can have a free access without fear of some drunken driver or break failure resulting in terrible and unfortunate death such as we have witnessed here. I think we need great cooperation from the Federal Government to live up to its own responsibilities”, Fayemi said.

    The governor also promised to ensure that more officials of the State Traffic Management Agency (EKSTMA) were deployed to the route to ensure that vehicles plying the route obey traffic regulations.

  • Tanker explosion kills 6

    Tanker explosion kills 6

    *Gunmen kill one policeman, injure another in Kaduna 

    There was a harvest of deaths over the weekend in Kaduna State.

    While a tanker explosion killed six persons, gunmen also killed a policeman and injured another in an attack on a police check-point in the metropolis.

    The fire incident occurred on Friday night at Maraban Jos, Igabi Local Government Area.

    The Chairman of Igabi Local Government Council, Alhaji Abdullahi Kwarau, said that the accident involved two fuel-laden tankers.

    The Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) had constructed a trailer park at the Maraban Jos axis of the Kaduna-Zaria expressway to reduce the high rate of fires caused by petrol tankers and accidents caused by articulated trucks parked along the road.

    Kwarau appealed to the state government to expedite action on the construction of more trailer parks on major roads in the state to avoid a recurrence of such accidents.

    Governor Mukhtar Yero condoled with the families of the victims and urged drivers, particularly those of petrol tankers, to be extra vigilant while driving or parking their vehicles.

    Efforts, he said, were on to ensure the timely completion of new trailer parks being constructed in Igabi, Kagarko and Birnin Gwari Local Government Areas.

    The gunmen attacked the police check point at Ungwan Dosa in Kaduna metropolis, killing a policeman and injuring another.

    The injured policeman was said to be receiving treatment at St. Gerard Catholic Hospital, Kaduna.

    The Commissioner of Police, Olufemi Adenaike, who confirmed the incident, said that one of the attackers has been arrested while others escaped with bullet wounds.

    The police boss said that they were yet to ascertain whether the attackers were armed robbers or members of the Boko Haram sect.

    Unconfirmed reports have it that three policemen involved in the attack were rushed to the St. Gerard Hospital where one of them died.