KEROSENE TANKER CRUSHES ABOUT 20 PERSONS TO DEATH IN ONITSHA

At least 20 Persons are suspected to have died after a tanker carrying kerosene lost control and rammed commuters and transporters on Upper Iweka axis of the Onitsha Enugu expressway.

The tanker was said to be descending from the Awka axis of the Enugu Onitsha expressway when the driver lost control around MCC junction.

An eye witness, Mr. Valentine okezie, Said the driver tried to plunge into a drainage channel but the tanker jumped over it and entered the service lane.

Mr. Okezie narrated that the tanker killed several persons, including commuters, food vendors, transporters, tricyclists among others.

When Radio Nigeria got to the scene, hundreds of people gathered and were taking pictures of different human body parts littered on the road.

People also trooped into Toronto Hospital to identify some dead bodies deposited at the morgue while the injured victims were being attended to by medical professionals.

Some of the sympathisers, who described the incident as very unfortunate, blamed the driver of the tanker for directing the vehicle towards an area with heavy human and vehicular movement.

One of them, Mr. Emma Mbieli, called on government to enact and implement a law prohibiting underage persons from driving such heavy duty vehicles as they lacked the experience to take decisions in the event of such incident.

Others called for total ban of heavy duty vehicles plying the area in the day, noting that three persons were killed on the same spot two days ago (Monday, March 11)

Our reporter who was at the scene of the incident reports that a similar incident occurred on Tuesday in Umuchu Community in Aguata Local Government Area when a trailer carrying cement collided with a tipper before both of them rammed stalls, crushing six persons to death at Ibuhubu Market and destroying goods worth millions of naira.

UCHE NDEKE