Niger explosion: Falana blames security, emergency agencies

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, yesterday blamed security and emergency agencies for failing to prevent the Saturday’s petrol tanker explosion at Dikko Junction in Gurara Local Government Area of Niger State.

Falana spoke last night when he featured on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

He said:  “The basic fact with respect to this avoidable tragedy is the fact that the authorities did not take adequate measures to prevent the explosion. So the government will have to be more proactive. The agencies put in place to prevent disasters will have to be more proactive.

“Otherwise, we will end up blaming the victims of poverty in the country. Yes, poverty may be the remote cause. But what about the immediate cause, which is a failure of intelligence and the failure of security forces to ensure that once a tanker falls in any part of the country on the road, security forces are expected to ensure that nobody moves near the site until the tanker is removed?

• Barewa alumni to appeal judgment in land dispute
• Couple allegedly trafficking, selling children for N1m each arrested

“(Unfortunately) we simply wait, allowing poor people, most of the time out of ignorance or poverty, to move there to draw fuel. Unless we make an example once and all, it will continue (to happen) in the country.”