By Princess Simon (Bureau Chief North Central, in Minna)
Many people, on Sunday, lost their lives when a trailer said to belong to Dangote Cement Company collided with a tanker conveying diesel at Enagi, the headquarters of Edati Local Government Area, along the Mokwa-Bida road in Niger state.
The incident which occurred late Sunday afternoon, Octobe31, 2021, led to the destruction of lives and properties, including buildings, electric poles, and cables when the diesel tanker skidded off the road after being scratched by the trailer and went into flames.
An Eye witness account told NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER Correspondent on the phone that a yet to be ascertained number of persons along the busy community lost their lives, while scores of people who sustained various degrees of injuries were rushed to a nearby health facility.
According to the eye witness, “Maybe the diesel tanker driver was trying to maneuver his way to avoid bad portions of the road or probably the road is too narrow to accommodate them, the trailer scratched the body and it skidded off the road and fell by some shops and buildings”.
The eyewitness further hinted that many people were caught up by the inferno, including people inside their shops, and those in residential buildings also lost their lives. At 6 pm when we passed the area, the tanker was still burning and the fire was spreading to other buildings.
Usman Baba, one of the residents of the affected community also said they counted about four charred bodies as at Sunday evening with several others sustaining various degrees of injuries being taken to a nearby health facility.
Usman also explained that several cars and motorcycles were also destroyed by the inferno, which, according to him, raged for several hours before a combined team of fire service and Federal Road Safety Commission came to the scene. NNL.
