That Carnage At Abule-Ado, Lagos

By Chuks Oluigbo


When little Abraham woke up that morning of Thursday, December 2, 2010, he did not have any premonition of what was going to befall him. It was like every other day. As usual, his adorable mother bathed him; then he ate his breakfast, dressed up for school, took his school bag, and gleefully jumped into his father’s waiting car. His mother and his aged grandmother, who came visiting from the village, were already in the car. His father was to take him to school at Abule-Oshun, along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, drop his mother off at work, and then take his grandmother to a hospital for medical check-up.

They set out for the day’s business full of expectations. Little Abraham arrived safely at school and bid farewell to his parents and granny. “See you later,” he said to them. All through the day he was his usual self. He attended to his class work, played with his friends, and during break ate the Indomie noodles and fried plantain in his food pack. When school was over, he waited endlessly for his father to come and pick him up. His young mind did not suspect anything when his auntie turned up to take him home instead. Even the crowd at their Festac Town residence did not speak to him in any way. Unknown to him, he had lost both parents and his grandmother in the carnage that occurred at Abule-Ado earlier that morning.

Between 7 and 8am that Thursday, while many Lagosians were still asleep, the Lagos-Badagry Expressway as usual was already abuzz with activities. Commercial vehicles were already on the road, picking up passengers who had lined up on the ever busy road. Workers in their private cars were also hurrying to get to work in time, while some rushed to take their children or wards to school before getting to the office. Hawkers of various wares moved up and down the road, and commuters who had not taken their breakfast used the opportunity to feed their stomachs. Everything was normal. Then came the explosion which filled the sky with thick smoke. People ran helter-skelter and in a matter of seconds, the whole place had turned into one huge hellfire, consuming both vehicles and human beings. Abraham’s father, mother, and grandmother were caught in that disaster, alongside numerous other innocent Nigerians.

According to eyewitness accounts, the accident happened when a loaded fuel tanker heading towards Badagry from Mile 2 entered into a pothole by the roadside and tumbled. As the tanker fell, fuel started gushing out. Few seconds later, the tanker exploded. Passing commercial vehicles, private cars, as well as pedestrians were consumed in the fire. By the time men of the Lagos State Fire Service came to the rescue, much damage had already been done.

That would not be the first time that tanker explosions have sent innocent citizens to their early graves. The charred remains of burnt tankers and trailers as well as abandoned remains of other articulated vehicles that continue to litter our roads and highways speak volumes. During a press conference in Abuja on April 7, 2009, the Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Osita Chidoka, said that 5,157 road traffic crashes were recorded between 2006 and 2009 involving tankers. In particular, between January and March 2009 alone, the country recorded about 2,119 accidents, with tanker drivers accounting for 301 deaths. In 2008, an unfortunate collision occurred involving a fuel tanker and vehicles carrying contingents of Nigerian soldiers returning from a peacekeeping mission in Darfur, Sudan.

Recently, on Wednesday, December 1, 2010, two fuel tankers loaded with petroleum products collided into each other and exploded along Abak-Ikot Ekpene Expressway near Abak in Akwa Ibom State. The ensuing fire reportedly took the life of an innocent citizen, perhaps because it happened around 4am when people were still asleep. Only God knows what would have happened if it had been around 7am when many people would have been on that road.

On Friday, December 3, another tanker almost exploded along the busy Ikorodu Road in Lagos. The tanker, which was fully loaded with petrol, was freely spilling its content on the road between Palmgrove and Obanikoro. What saved the situation was that the tanker driver jumped out and frantically sprayed foam from the fire extinguisher, while FRSC officials diverted traffic from Onipanu into the service lane.

Also, there was a report in The Punch of February 10, 2010 of one Mr Hakeem Abdulrazak whose brother and his new wife got burnt beyond recognition in a tanker explosion at Ibafo, near Lagos. Hakeem’s brother, who was based in Saudi Arabia, came back to Nigeria to formalise his marriage. He had just finished the ceremonies and was driving back to Lagos when the incident occurred.

On May 13, 2010, Next newspaper carried the following report: “In late April, five people were burnt to death in Ibafo, along Lagos-Ibadan expressway when two tankers collided and burst into flames. The same month at Ilupeju in Lagos, a tanker conveying fuel tumbled off the ever-busy Ikorodu road and spilt the petrol it was carrying on the road. Five vehicles parked in front of a commercial bank as well as parts of the bank itself were consumed by the resulting inferno. It was the prompt response of the Fire Service that contained the fire and stopped it from engulfing the whole bank and trapping the workers and customers that were in the premises at the same time. In the same month, a tanker that was discharging fuel at a filling station situated in the densely populated Ojuelegba area of Lagos caught fire. Thankfully, a quick thinking motorcyclist got into the burning trailer and moved it out of the petrol station, thereby averting what would have been a complete disaster.” The list is endless.

The question is, how many more need to go before a concerted action is taken to stop this ugly trend? Is it not time enough for those in charge to arrest the insane conditions that make these accidents happen? Certainly, the government cannot continue to idle away while road users are maimed and killed. Governments at all levels must step in immediately to save travellers from avoidable deaths. There has to be control on the time that these vehicles are allowed to ply our roads. Elsewhere, heavy vehicles ply the roads only late in the night when the roads are freer. Why is it different here? Sometime ago Nigerians were told that the idea was being mooted, but up till now, nothing has come out of it. The situation where tankers and other big vehicles dominate the roads between the hours of six and ten in the morning when most workers are rushing to work and in the evenings when workers are returning from work cannot be allowed to continue. The Nigerian government should take this matter seriously and implement that measure as well as other useful measures to mitigate the danger posed by tanker drivers.

Unfortunately, we live in a society that does not value human life. Else, why do these things persist and the government is seen to be doing nothing about it? There is an urgent need for all stakeholders including the Federal Road Safety Corps, the Nigeria Police, Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, independent petroleum product marketers, National Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers, NUPENG, Nigeria Haulers Association, the Nigerian Shippers Council, and other relevant organisations (both government-owned and non-governmental) to come together and join hands in combating this ugly menace which has claimed the lives of innumerable Nigerians. Whether we like it or not, every traveller on the Nigerian road is a potential victim. And who knows, it could be you.