Residents of Onitsha, the commercial city of Anambra State were, again, thrown into panic on Thursday, as another fuel truck laden with petrol, otherwise, known as Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) fell in the area along the popular Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, near army barracks Onitsha.
The incident happened around Chipex Filling station area in the highly busy commercial city at about 1.25 pm making it the third of such incident recorded in the commercial town within two weeks.
It was gathered that the first of the incident which happened on October 16, claimed about five lives, including, a mother and her only child, and destroyed buildings, shops and wares at the Ochanja market.
The Anambra state government had set up an investigative panel headed by the deputy governor, Dr Nkem Okeke with a mandate to unravel the cause of the incident, damages done and people affected with a promise to pay the compensation.
The second incident occurred about two days later which destroyed about 22 vehicles, about seven buildings though no human life was lost.
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Confirming the fall of the petrol tanker at Chipex Filling Station, the spokesman of the state police command, Mr Haruna Mohammed, a Superintendent of Police ( SP) stated that the Commissioner of police in the state, Mr John Abang had already led a team of the Command’s operatives to the scene, and that the operatives of the state fire service, and, the Federal Road Safety Commission ( FRSC) have also stormed the scene of the incident to save the situation.
The state police spokesman stated that though no loss of human life had been recorded, fuel was spilling from the tanker, so, the entire area had been cordoned off, adding that, preliminary investigation showed that the fuel tanker fell into a ditch as a result of brake failure.
Mr Mohammed said: “The PMS is spilling out at the time of making this report. It is highly advisable you alert residents in the Area through your medium to stay clear from the premises in order to prevent any disaster.
“Meanwhile, Police patrol teams have cordoned off the Area and fire Service department was equally contacted to be on standby in order to prevent fire incident”, he stated further.
Also, confirming the incident, the Public Relations Officer ( PRO) of the FRSC in the state, Mr. Paschal Anigbo stated that no loss of life had been recorded, adding, that efforts were on top gear by the men of the Command, police and fire service to ensure that the situation did not degenerate.
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