Fuel tanker inferno: 3 dead, 15 wounded

Posted by admin Headlines Friday, December 9th, 2011

Three people were feared dead yesterday, when a tanker lost control in Nnewi, Anambra State, killing three people including a driver, conductor and a car dealer, leaving 15 people wounded.

The incident, which happened at about 12.50pm at a junction near the Nnewi Area Command of the Nigeria Police left three people dead and 15 wounded. Daily Sun gathered from sympathizers at the scene, that the truck had offloaded its content on top of the hill, before its brakes failed.

Eye-witness accounts said that the tanker with registration number Lagos XV615-FKJ, was sighted rushing down from the hill behind the command and crashed into a mango tree and the fence of a compound near the road, leaving the driver and conductor unconscious, before the tanker burst into flames.

Ejikeme Eze, who owns a mechanic workshop near the scene of the incident, said that the tanker lost control as it was coming down the hill towards his workshop, ramming into another trailer coming down the hill, and finally killing his friend and business partner, Tochukwu, as it fought for control.

“I was here, under a car I was repairing, when I heard shouts and people screaming that people should run off the road. I managed to scramble out from underneath the car, when I saw the trailer rushing down. It rammed into other trailer, wounding the driver and conductor and some other people around before hitting that mango tree and the wall there, and caught fire. My friend and partner, Ugochukwu was bending down to sweep our shop when the accident happened. You can still see his remains under the tyre of the vehicle, Eze lamented.

When Daily Sun rushed to the scene, balls of fire were still seen coming out from the front compartment of the tanker while fire fighters from a nearby Ekwulobia and Okpoko service stations were busy putting the fire under control.
Meanwhile, men of the State Security Services (SSS), Anambra State Command have foiled a planned bank robbery in Awka by intercepting a large cache of weapons ordered by the armed robbers from neighbouring Delta State, for the operation in three major banks.

The State Director of SSS, Mr. Alex Okeiyi who disclosed this yesterday in his office while briefing newsmen in the presence of Governor Peter Obi said the hoard of arms were intercepted by his men in Awka where they were meant to be received by the hoodlums who ordered them. Okeiyi said the intercepted arms included two general multi-purpose guns, 653 live rounds of ammunition, 416 other live rounds in chains and three pairs of hand gloves.

He said that his men through intelligence information trailed the vehicle conveying the consignment from Delta State to Awka, where a team of hoodlums who ordered the arms, came to take delivery of them in a red bus engaged them in a gun battle.

-Sunwp_posts