How Fuel Tanker Explosion Killed Over 40 in Niger State

Residents of Dendo community, Agaie Council Area of Niger state, North Central Nigeria, say the fuel tanker explosion that occurred at about 12:30 pm Sunday after burnt over 40 people alive.

The casualties were recorded when the PMS-laden tanker had a head-on collision with another trailer filled with people and cows, said to be heading to Lagos from Wudil, Kano.

Both were immediately engulfed in an inferno that went beyond the control of everyone. The ensuing inferno also consumed occupants of two other two vehicles, a crane truck and pick-up van, that were involved in the crash.

Those confirmed dead in the collision were mostly burnt beyond recognition.

Eye witnesses told FreshNews correspondent that the accident occurred when the fuel tanker attempted to overtake another vehicle, unmindful of oncoming traffic, resulting in a head-on hit with the trailer laden with human and animal cargo from the opposite direction, enroute Lagos from Wudil, Kano.

In a statement released shortly after the incident, head of the State Emergency Management Agency, NSEMA, Abdullahi Baba-Arab, disclosed that 30 people were confirmed dead in the incident that occurred some two kilometres away from Dendo.

He added however, that the NSEMA team was still on ground to possibly rescue other survivors.

“Over 30 people have already been confirmed dead, with more than 50 cattle burnt alive. NSEMA’s Rapid Response Team (RRT), in conjunction with LGEMCs, is still at the scene conducting search and rescue operations, as more bodies remain trapped inside the vehicles,” Baba-Arab said in the statement.

But Baba Arab's figure is a far cry from that given by natives and other first responders on the scene. Speaking in condition of anonymity, the eye-witnesses told our correspondent that they counted over 40 human burnt bodies on the scene, in addition to over 50 incinerated cows.