ABOUT 200 people were, on Thursday, burnt to death, some of them to ashes, with yet another 60 sustaining serious degrees of burns, when a Premium Motor Spirit (PMS)-laden tanker fell in an auto accident, leading to an inferno in Okogbe village, Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers State.
However, the Rivers State command of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) put the number of the victims at 95.
Newsmen gathered that the tragic incident — which occurred at about 6.30 a.m. — happened when the tanker driver was trying to avoid running over a new Toyota Corolla already hit by a bus.
In his effort to avoid hitting the car, his fuel-laden tanker overturned, spilling the content into a hollow open space beside Oando petrol station on the East-West road.
According to community and some other official sources, the driver of the tanker, who managed to escape the inferno, warned the gathering crowd around the spot of the accident to run for dear life as the situation could turn ugly.
The spillage lasted for about 40 minutes and a crowd of villagers had gathered at the place, scooping spilled fuel when somebody allegedly used a mobile phone, which sparked off the fire.
“When I got to work this morning, my colleagues told me that an accident had occurred at Okogbe. So I rushed down there. By the time I got there I learnt that a Toyota Corolla was involved in an accident with another vehicle, so the trailer was trying to avoid the Corolla when it fell.
“I learnt that after the accident, people from the village started rushing to the site to scoop fuel, when the fire happened.
The number of dead bodies I saw won’t be less than 150 and more than 40 people were taken to the hospital,” Segun Oluwatuyi, one of the eyewitnesses, narrated.
By the time the Newsmen got to the site of the incident at about 9.30 a.m., the fire had been quelled, leaving scores of charred corpses all over and some of the victims who were still alive were already taken to various hospitals.
Although there were conflicting figures of the number of victims. Most witnesses as well as some official sources put the number of the dead at about 200 and those seriously injured at about 60 persons.
When speaking to journalists at the Ahoada General Hospital, Ahoada West Local Government Area of the state, the Commissioner for Health, Dr Sampson Parker, who was accompanied by two of his colleagues, including Commissioner for Special Duties, Emeka Nwogu, said he counted 200 corpses.
“I will describe this as the single worst incident that has happened to Rivers State since the Civil War. It is even worse than the Sosoliso crash we experienced before now. It’s quite a pity.
“The situation would have been saved if they didn’t go there. Because when the accident happened, there was no fire.
The fire, as I heard, started when they started scooping fuel. So the situation would have been saved if people didn’t go there to scoop fuel.
“As far as I’m concerned, this is a national disaster, I don’t think anything like this has happened even in the areas where we are hearing of bomb blasts, Boko Haram or plane crashes. I think this is the worst single disaster that has happened to Nigeria. I don’t know which other one, because the corpses I counted alone, those ones that are there alone are over 200 littered about and they have not finished counting.
Cremation is what we see at the site. Some people are burnt to ashes. So how many can you count? Look at the number that has been taken to several hospitals,” Parker lamented.
But the Sector Commander of the FRSC in Rivers State, Dr Kayode Olagunju, put the number of corpses at 95 persons.
Olagunju, said: “eighty-seven corpses burnt beyond recognition as a result of the crash involving a tanker and three other vehicles, given mass burial at the scene of the crash at Okogbe along Ahoda-Mbiama on the East-West Road in Rivers State.
Six of the bodies of the victims that died on the spot had earlier been identified and released to the families. Two of the 20 injured taken to the hospitals also died. A total of 95 persons died in the crash with 18 others injured. vehicles involved were Toyota Corolla, with registration number RQ218AAA, Toyota Hiace XZ613AGL and a tanker with registration number XA340TDU. One Mazda bus and 34 motor bikes were burnt beyond recognition."
At the Ahoada General Hospital, the number of those injured taken in was so high that space became inadequate.
As of the time of filing this story, the Rivers State governor, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, who cut his trip to Abuja short, had visited the scene of the unfortunate incident.
When contacted, the governor’s spokesman, David Iyofor, said the governor was utterly devastated by the tragic incident and the unfortunate loss of lives.
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed deep sadness at the loss of many lives as a result of the explosion.
A statement issued by Dr Reuben Abati, the president’s spokesman, in Abuja, said that the president was particularly distraught by the fact that once again, so many Nigerian lives had been lost in an avoidable fuel fire disaster.
While conveying his condolences to the families of the victims and the Rivers State government, he directed federal relief and health agencies to do everything possible to ensure that all those who survived the explosion with burns and injuries received prompt and effective medical attention.
SOURCE TRIBUNE
