20 Fared Dead in Lagos Tanker Explosion.

Not less than 20 people were said to have been burnt to death in last week’s tanker accident that occurred around Alakija area on the ever-busy Lagos-Badagry expressway in Lagos.
It was indeed a very gory sight as the petroleum tanker which was reportedly loaded with 33,000 liters of fuel lost control at about 5 o’clock in the early hours of the morning and spilt some of its content in the process.
Eye witnesses confirmed to Shipping Position Weekly that the tanker did not explode immediately and that the uninjured driver of the truck tried to alert on-coming vehicles of the imminent danger ahead, but to no avail as they thought he was an armed robber.
The ball of fire that erupted afterwards caught up and destroyed two cars, a Volkswagen commercial bus and two fully- loaded 18- seat Hiace buses claiming 20 lives immediately including that of pregnant women.
Eye witness account also confirmed that some of the victims who fled from the fire into a nearby swamp are yet to be accounted for even as rescue operations carried out to bring them out turned futile.
Shipping position Weekly’s investigation however confirmed that the exploded tanker had been coming from Folawiyo tank farms in Apapa Lagos and the identity of the marketer who owns the tanker was given as Alanamu Petroleum limited.
According to the source who spoke to our correspondent shortly after the accident, “we have just received word of the explosion this morning, the tanker belongs to one Alanamu, it loaded at Folawiyo over the night because of the rushing that followed the calling off of the warning strike on Monday”.
“The driver and the motor boy will be detained until the cause of the fire is determined, this is the normal process that is followed whenever such events happen” he said.