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The death toll from an explosion on a fuel tanker overnight Tuesday to Wednesday in northern Nigeria’s Jigawa state has risen to 147, Nigeria’s National Emergency Agency (NEMA) said .
“Tragically, 147 people lost their lives in the incident,” NEMA said in a statement.
Earlier, Jigawa police spokesman Lawal Shisu Adams told local media that “the death toll is about 105 and the number of injured is 55. “
Adams said in a statement released earlier that the accident occurred when the truck was travelling from the city of Port Harcourt in the southern state of Rivers to the town of Nguru in Yobe state (north).
When the truck “reached Majiya village in Taura township (in Jigawa) at around 00:30 (2330 GMT on Wednesday), the driver lost control,” causing the vehicle to overturn, the spokesman said.
“The contents of the tanker flooded the village’s sewers and drains. Villagers began searching for petrol but the fuel then caught fire,” Adams said.
Videos posted on social media show a huge fire and a plume of black smoke caused by the explosion in an area where there are buildings and vegetation.
The victims were left unrecognizable.
Many of the dead, who were buried in mass graves on Wednesday, were burnt beyond recognition and some were covered with tree branches to protect the bodies from onlookers who came to the scene of the crash. Nigerian
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu conveyed “his sincere prayers and support to the government and people of Jigawa during this time of tragic loss and grief,” his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said in a statement.
Tinubu said the Federal Government , in collaboration with the states, “is committed to the prompt and comprehensive review of fuel transportation safety protocols across the country.”
The president also urged the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to “strengthen night travel measures, such as increased patrols, stricter enforcement of safety regulations and other road safety mechanisms.” Tinubu
also stressed, according to the official statement, that “those responsible for breaches of security regulations will be held accountable , reaffirming the Government’s unwavering commitment to ensure that such incidents do not recur.”
Tanker accidents are common in Nigeria
Such accidents involving tanker trucks carrying fuel occur relatively frequently in Nigeria , one of Africa’s major oil powers .
On September 8 , an accident on a major highway in the state of Niger, in the north-central part of the country, caused the explosion of a fuel truck and caused the death of at least 59 people.
In another similar case, in April 2023, at least ten people died in Plateau state (center) due to another explosion of this type. EFE
