Man dies while scooping fuel from tanker in Warri

The body of a worker at a fuel station was on Monday afternoon found lifeless inside a fuel tanker in Warri, Delta State.

The fuel station (name withheld) is situated by MCC junction on Enerhen Road, in Uvwie Local Government Area of the state.

The deceased, simply identified as Emma, was said to be the Chief Security Officer of the gas station before he was found dead in one of the company’s petrol tankers.

According to one of the staff, Emma had left his clothes, a red T-shirt and a jean knickers, hanging on a rod somewhere in the office with nobody aware of his whereabouts.

It was gathered that other workers had been searching for him since Sunday and when they resumed work on Monday morning, they continued with the search.

A worker at the station disclosed that at a point, one of the fuel tankers, parked at the station, went to depot to load fuel.

It was at the point of loading the tanker that an object was discovered to be obstructing the loading process inside the tanker.

The driver reportedly drove the tanker back to the filling station where the object was discovered to be the corpse of Emma.

The deceased was suspected to have been choked to death by gas when he was allegedly attempting to scoop fuel from the tanker for sale ahead of the yuletide.

He was said to have tied a rope to a paint bucket to do the scooping.

But tragedy struck in the process as he must have been overwhelmed by the stench of the gas in the tanker.

It could not be ascertained if the deceased had succeeded in scooping fuel on the fateful day, but other workers were overheard discussing in hush tones that “na God catch am; e don tey wem im dey do am.”

The incident, however, attracted a mammoth crowd who gathered to have a glimpse of the body when it was being removed from the tanker.

The body was thereafter evacuated and conveyed to the morgue at the Warri Central Hospital in a commercial bus popularly known as “Danfo.”

Meanwhile, the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Andrew Aniamaka, when contacted on phone could not confirm the incident.