January 20, (THEWILL) – President Bola Tinubu has directed the National Orientation Agency, NOA, to immediately embark on a nationwide educational campaign to raise public awareness of the severe risks and environmental dangers of scooping fuel from overturned tankers.
He also directed that a committee be set up to look into the root causes of the recurring incident and proffer a permanent solution.
A devastating petrol tanker explosion occurred last Saturday at Dikko Junction in Gurara Local Government Area of Niger State, resulting in the loss of lives. As at press time, 86 persons have been confirmed dead and many others injured and hospitalised.
In separate statements on Sunday, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga and the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammed Idris, conveyed the President’s expression of “deep sorrow over the fuel tanker explosion,” and his instruction to proceed on “the immediate relocation of the victims of the incident from Suleija General Hospital in Niger State to tertiary health facilities.”
While mourning the victims, President Tinubu, who expressed his condolences to the families affected, as well as to the government and people of Niger State, underscored the tragic and preventable nature of the incident.
The President advised all citizens to exercise caution and avoid approaching accident sites, especially those involving fuel-laden vehicles, due to their highly explosive nature.
“Additionally, the President has mandated the National Orientation Agency to initiate a nationwide educational campaign. This campaign will raise public awareness of the severe risks and environmental dangers of scooping fuel from fallen tankers,” said Onanuga.
Idris, who led a government delegation, which included the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Nentawe Yilwatda and some heads of agencies, to the state to console the government and people of Niger State over the sad event, also carried out some on-the-spot assessment of the situation.
He said, “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is deeply saddened by what has happened. He asked us to come here to see the situation. We have just gone round the wards and we have seen those that are very critically injured and as we are visiting, one of them unfortunately passed on and we were told that this is the eighth victim of the fire explosion that has just passed on today, Sunday, and what we are seeing is the dire need for emergency medical attention, which the Federal Government is taking.”
Idris also said that the Minister of Health and the National Emergency Management Agency and all relevant government agencies will ensure that all the victims are immediately evacuated and taken to the Intensive Care Units of available tertiary institutions.
President Tinubu, the minister added, had ordered that a committee be set up to look into the incident. The committee would investigate the immediate cause of the incident and recommend effective solutions to prevent another occurrence in the future.
THEWILL recalls that hundreds of Nigerians had lost their lives while scooping fuel from overturned petrol tankers or burst oil pipelines in the past. Tanker explosions have been recurring for a long time, despite warnings issued by the authorities about the associated dangers.
For example, on September 16, 2004, nearly 60 people were killed when an oil pipeline exploded on the outskirts of Lagos.
On May 12, 2006 the incident repeated itself. This time, between 150 and 200 people died in the resulting inferno at a beach near Lagos.
On Boxing Day in the same year, at least 280 people were in yet another pipeline explosion in the Abule- Egba area of Lagos in similar circumstances.
In March, 26, 2007, at least 93 people died when an overturned petrol tanker burst into flames in Kaduna State as people attempted to scoop petrol from the fallen tanker. A similar incident took place on May 15, 2008 in an outskirt of Lagos when an oil pipeline blast killed at least 15 persons, according to the authorities.]
On July 13, 2012, more than 100 people, including pregnant women and children, lost their lives after a tanker loaded with petrol fell in Okogbe, a community in the Ahoada Local Government Area of Rivers State and exploded. Last October, over 180 residents were killed and several others seriously injured in Jigawa, after a tanker laden with petrol exploded at Majiya town, along the Kano-Hadejia Expressway in Taura LGA of the state.
Also, on October 25, 2024, dozens of Cross River State citizens died when scooping fuel from a fallen tanker in Akamkpa Local government area.
The Minister of Information, Idris, on Sunday acknowledged this deadly trend.
He said, “From September 2024 to this time, we had four of these major incidents. We had the first one between Ibadan and Ife where a tanker exploded and houses and cars were engulfed in fire and about a day after, here in Niger State in Agaie, about 48 persons lost their lives. This is on the eighth of September, 2024. Not long afterwards, on the 15th of October, again in 2024, about 144 people also lost their lives in Jigawa State in a similar incident and now only yesterday, here at a junction, nearly 80 people lost their lives.
“If you put these figures together, you will see that over 265 people have so far lost their lives in this kind of incident. The government is very worried and as a result of that will set up a committee comprising the Ministry of Information and National Orientation, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, other critical stakeholders, such as NEMA, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Standard Organisation of Nigeria, Federal Road Safety Commission, NARTO, NUPENG, IPMAN and all other stakeholders to come together to find the remote and immediate causes of this and how to avoid recurrence.”
He said that in line with the recent presidential directive, the National Orientation Agency will intensify public awareness campaigns to educate citizens on the dangers of scooping petroleum products following fuel tanker accidents to avert such incidents.
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