Just two days after over 90 people were burnt to death in a tanker explosion that also left scores injured in Niger State, residents massed around another fallen truck in another community.
The fresh incident occurred in Bida town on Monday.
In a widely circulated video online, young persons were seen milling around the broken down truck.
While some managed to scoop, others fled in different directions, apparently to prevent being caught up in an unfortunate situation.
Premium Times quoted a resident, Yinusa Jiya, as saying, “The people were not even afraid despite earlier assumption that it was petrol.”
Another eyewitness, Fatimah Mohammed, told the newspaper that the tanker was carrying groundnut oil.
“It fell around AYM Shafa filling station yesterday (Monday) and residents stole huge amounts of the groundnut oil dripping from the tanker”, she added.
The development came two days after the deadly tanker explosion that killed about 98 people around Dikko Junction, Gurara LGA, Niger State.
Daily Trust reports that the death toll from the deadly explosion has been on the rise as some persons who sustained injuries died in the hospitals where they were being treated.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu while reacting to the situation, mandated the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to step up a campaign against scooping during such a situation.
The Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) said it was worried by the casualty figures and magnitude of burns.
The Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) said 86 bodies were mass-buried on Sunday.
Several other injured victims are still receiving treatment for first degree burns in various hospitals.
Authorities have blamed citizens for the devastating loss of lives and injuries in the explosion, saying the fire was ignited by those trying to scoop fuel.
Niger State has suffered several incidents in the past which resulted in several loss of lives.
More than 50 travellers died in a midnight tanker explosion along the Agaie-Badeggi road on September 8, 2024.
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