Petrol Tanker Explosion: Another Danger Averted In Onitsha

Princewill Akubumma | Biafra Writers

January 29, 2020

ONITSHA - Residents of Onitsha, the commercial hub of Anambra state, were yesterday, Tuesday January 28, 2020, thrown into panic as yet another tanker laden with petroleum fell at Upper Iweka, the busiest and the most crowded area in Onitsha. Aware of the disaster that usually followed, residents scampered for safety.

It is barely four months now that a heavy casualty was recorded at the same spot when a petrol tanker fell into the gutter and burst into flames, leaving many dead and many more injured, not to mention countless businesses that got razed down.

Both ends of the major lane where the petrol tanker fell were cordoned off by men of the Nigerian Police. Members of Anambra Fire Service were on ground and ready for action should there be fire outbreak. Many news agencies were there also, covering the happenings.

Given the recurrent incident of this tanker mishap, the government, if it cares for the life of the citizenry, should as a matter of urgency ban petrol tanker and lorry drivers from plying the city roads in daytime or build a separate lane for them.

The Biafra Times
Edited by Nelson Ofokar Yagazie
Publisher: Chijindu Benjamin Ukah
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Onitsha Inferno: We Commiserate with families that lost their loved ones - IPOB

OCTOBER 17, 2019 | THE BIAFRA TIMES

IPOB PRESS STATEMENT

With a profound sense of deep sorrow and sadness, we commiserate with all the families and communities that lost loved ones over the terror attack in Onitsha on the 16 October 2019. This is not the first time an articulated Dangote lorry or a tanker driven by a terrorist ladden with inflammable liquid has been involved in mass fatalities in Onitsha or other parts of Anambra State. The story is always the same, its either their trailer had brake failure or their tanker exploded, all resulting in massive loss of lives and destruction of individually owned businesses.

We the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) call these callous and wicked acts for what it is- a cowardly terrorist attack designed by those evil men determined to exterminate we Biafrans from the face of the earth and carried out by those that think they are serving a Jihadi cause that will bring about the Islamisation of Biafraland through terrorism. At a time when Fulani herdsmen sponsored by the caliphate are actively engaged in the forceful acquisition of our lands in Ebonyi, Enugu, Anambra, and Abia, aided by the Nigerian Army under the guise of Operation Python Dance 4, this massive loss of lives and businesses in Onitsha is most unwelcome.

The question we keep asking is, why are there no exploding tankers in crowded streets of Kano, Kaduna or Sokoto? Why must tankers driven by northerners always explode in the south or the brakes of their trailers always fail in Biafraland? It is time now for our people to wake up to this new reality of population reduction by those intent on the destruction of the Biafran race.

We Biafrans as a people are under immense siege from our enemies on multiple fronts. They are determined to conquer and subjugate us by all means but we IPOB shall continue to resist them regardless of human and material cost.

It is not a coincidence that at a time when Biafrans are being persecuted in India, South Africa, Togo, Congo, Indonesia, and Malaysia at the instigation of the Government of Nigeria, our land being forcibly given to Fulani terror herdsmen by weak South East governors; Ohaneze Ndigbo slavishly and treacherously going down on their knees to beg the caliphate to make Nnia Nwodo a lapdog president of the north, coupled with the closure of land borders in the south of Nigeria while those in the north remain open; using Operation Python Dance 4 to terrorise innocent civilians to submit to the will of the Fulani caliphate, are all well marshalled schemes designed to instil fear, strangulate Biafran businesses across West Africa, render Biafraland economically impotent and prepare Biafrans for total annihilation.

Every Biafran must wake up to this inevitable reality that our governors and Ohaneze have sold us and our children's future to their Fulani masters. What awaits us all is slavery and servitude unless we rise up to support Biafra restoration as puritanically championed by IPOB. The fire outbreak in Onitsha was designed and orchestrated by a few individuals who used a Fulani driver to perfect this most heinous terrorists attack on the peace-loving people of Biafra. Even in midst of this terrible attack the incompetence and carelessness of Governor Willie Obiano shone through. Anambra State government was unable to mobilise paid firefighters or summon a fire engine to help with efforts to put out the inferno, instead, Willie Obiano ordered the arrest of those that volunteered to stop the fire from spreading.

One thing is certain, there is no way they can succeed because IPOB is already withstanding and confronting them in all forms and on all fronts. 


COMRADE EMMA POWERFUL MEDIA AND PUBLICITY SECRETARY FOR IPOB.

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Onitsha: Hundreds of shops, houses razed down in fuel fire mishap

OCTOBER 17, 2019 | THE BIAFRA TIMES

• Fleeing woman, baby slip, burnt to death

• Youths rally to save the elderly, women, children from being burnt

• Absence of firefighters, equipment worsens destruction

By Nwabueze Okonkwo and Chimaobi Nwaiwu

Many people were trapped and feared dead, yesterday, while scores of persons sustained injuries in Onitsha, Anambra State, as a petrol-laden tanker lost control, crashed into Toronto Hospital at Upper Iweka, along Enugu-Onitsha Expressway and burst into flames.

The incident, which occurred at about 12 noon, is the second tanker accident at the same spot, that had claimed over 50 lives this year.

The latest victim among others, who lost their lives, was a pregnant woman and her three-year-old baby strapped to her back.

According to an eyewitness, the woman had escaped, but went back to her shop to rescue her money.

The source stated that the flames, which followed the flow of fuel in the drainage, touched wooden bridge to her shop and as she stepped on it on getting out of the shop, the wood caved in and she fell into the drainage with the child on her back.

Efforts to rescue her proved abortive, as the flames leaping out of the fuel-filled drainage scared off sympathisers.

The fire from the explosion also consumed about 40 buildings, affected over 500 lock-up shops along the Iweka Road Street Market and spread to Ochanja and Menax markets.

The incident, which sparked confusion among residents and traders, reportedly occurred when the tanker laden with petrol lost control opposite Toronto Hospital Onitsha, while descending Zik Roundabout end of Onitsha- Enugu Expressway and veered off the service lane, with the fuel tanker pulling off the truck head and spilling its content, which caught fire.

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Damages

Property and goods worth millions of naira were destroyed at Ochanja Market, while a commercial bank was also touched as the fire passed through New Auto Spare Parts Market, down to Iweka Road and to Emodi Street by Zik’s Avenue, burning all the shops along the road.

Trading activities were halted at Upper Iweka, Ochanaja, Iweka Road to Ozomagala Street, as traders shut abruptly with the flames surging higher, as the fuel flowed down the streets.

But for the intervention of youths, who climbed up three and four-storey buildings, the casualties would have been much as trapped old men, women, and children in most of the buildings were rescued before the ravaging fire caught up with them.

‘No fire station’

A resident, who spoke with Vanguard, said the fire started around 10a.m. and for the two hours the buildings were on fire, there was no fire-fighter around.

The resident added that none of the markets in Onitsha had any functional fire service station, as people watched helplessly as their houses, shops, goods, and flats got burnt.

Another eyewitness, Jude Okezie, said for the resilience and courage of some youths, some elderly people including children trapped in over 10 buildings, ranging from two, three to four-storey buildings along Iweka Road towards Ochanja Market, would have burnt to death as smoke almost suffocated them before rescue came their way.

There was mild drama at the scene when the youths, chanting anti-government slogans, forced two sewage tankers taking faeces to dump sites to assist in putting out the fire, but with little success as the fire continued to blaze towards Ochanja Market.

As the youths were chanting anti-government songs, a fire service vehicle, said to have come from Asaba, appeared with water, but the angry youths, thinking it was from Anambra State, started throwing stones at it, destroying the windscreens, making the driver and two occupants return to their base.

The crowd became uncontrollable as efforts to put out the fire manually continued with collection of water with buckets from a borehole on the street with a pastor, who owns a filling station, supplying detergents and fire extinguisher for the youths to put out the fire moving through the gutter.

At press time, many youths were seen putting up spirited efforts to put out the fire, with many throwing sachets of pure water into the heart of the fire in a futile, but desperate attempt to stop the inferno.

Victims

Some of the victims at Ochanja Market, Agbo Romijus, Fabian Onah and Jude Nnamani whose goods were completely gutted by fire, told Vanguard that the fire incident took them unawares.

They rained curses on men of the state fire service for not making any attempt to visit the scene with their equipment, even as at 6p.m.

According to them, they were sitting in their shops not expecting any danger when suddenly the flame burst forth in front of the shops and quickly spread into their shop from the wares displayed outside.

One said: “We lost everything we have laboured for in life. We are finished and no hope to overcome this incident.”

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Jude Nnamani, who was weeping uncontrollably, said: “All my goods were gutted by the fire. We are passionately appealing to Governor Willie Obiano to kindly come to our rescue because we have families and dependents and now we have no other hope.”

There is fear that more human casualties may be recorded following the number of buildings affected and their proximity to each other along the Iweka Road, leading to Ochanja Market.

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Publisher: Charles Opanwa