By Nwabueze Okonkwo, Onitsha

Barely 24 hours after last Sunday’s ill-fated fuel tanker fire that killed 69 persons inside the Asaba Motor Park at the popular Upper Iweka axis in the commercial city of Onitsha, Anambra State, rescue operations yesterday continued in earnest at the accident scene, while a mammoth crowd thronged various major hospitals in the city to see if they could identify the victims.

Onitsha-Tanker-death-toll

A visit to the scene and hospitals yesterday afternoon showed individuals, organisations and families moving from one hospital to the other, particularly those who were expecting their relations back home from various destinations within the weekend.

Some of the major hospitals were besieged by anxious crowd of individuals in frantic search of their relations. They included the General Hospital, Onitsha; St. Charles Borromeo Mission Hispital, Onitsha and Toronto Hospital, a private hospital located very close to the accident scene.

MASSOB identifies chieftain among the dead

At the Onitsha General Hospital, yesterday, leadership of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, in Anambra North Local Government Area said they have so far identified one Chief Donatus Nweke, its Regional Administrator in charge of Anambra West Local Government Area, as one of the deceased fire victims.

Speaking to newsmen at the hospital premises while trying to prevail on the hospital management to release the remains of the late Chief Nweke to them to be taken home for burial, the leader of MASSOB in Anambra North Zone, Mazi Chris Mocha said the 54-year-old Nweke who hails from Amagu village, Amuri in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State, until his death in the unfortunate incident, was a pioneer member of the movement in Anambra State.

According to Mocha: “When the sad news was broken to Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, the MASSOB leader, yesterday, he commiserated with all the family members of the dead and prayed that God, in His infinite mercy, shall grant them the fortitude to bear the heavy loss”, adding that they were in the hospital with the wife of their bereaved member to evacuate the body home for immediate burial.

Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Red Cross Society, NRCS, Anambra State, Prof. Peter Emeka Katchy, also confirmed to Vanguard Metro yesterday in his office at Onitsha that one more person died to bring the death toll to 70, while 29 were still critical in the various hospitals.

Katchy also confirmed that Governor Willie Obiano had shortly after visiting the scene on Sunday, given a directive to the management of the nearby Toronto Hospital to give proper medical attention to all the injured victims at the expense of the state government.

At the scene of the incident, members of the NRCS and other security agencies were seen still checking the burnt vehicles in search of valuables and possibly human bodies. The fire which started at about 3pm was the outcome of a petrol-laden tanker ramming into the Asaba Park and exploding thereafter when the driver lost control of the vehicle due to sudden brake failure.

Among the dead victims were the tanker driver and his conductor, a pregnant woman, little babies, drivers and passengers boarding vehicles at the park, several individuals at news-stands along the park, as well as hawkers within the vicinity. The tragic incident also threw residents and travellers within the commercial city of Onitsha into panic as many wailed uncontrollably at the sight of the charred and mangled bodies of the victims and critical conditions of the injured.

However, some of the eye-witnesses who spoke to newsmen, argued that the death toll was far higher than the official 69 mentioned by the NRCS. According to an eye witness, who identified himself at the scene as Victor Ugwumadu, the tanker caught fire about 10 minutes after ramming into the building which resulted in many persons being trapped in the rubble.

He said as the inferno raged on, men of the Fire Service from Okpoko and Onitsha Main Market fire stations who tried to put out the fire were helpless as they ran out of water so early.

He said he saw a combined team of policemen from Okpoko, Area Command, Central Police Station, Onitsha, Fegge, Awada and Inland Divisions with officers of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Red Cross and State Security Services, DSS, battling to rescue the victims casualties.

He said some angry youths at the scene wanted to block the expressway in protest but for the timely intervention of the security operatives.

Also speaking at the scene, Mr. Iyke Nzegwu, a Chief Superintendent of Fire Service from Okpoko Fire Station, lamented that the organisation was incapacitated in handling emergency situations owing to government negligence. He said that Okpoko station has only one functional vehicle out of three, adding that they ran out of water as soon as they arrived the scene which led to the escalation of the inferno.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Administration, DCP Makama, who visited the scene on behalf of the Commissioner of Police, Hosea Karma, said that the incident was highly regrettable and suggested that government should always take proactive measures in forestalling  future occurrences by providing all the necessary materials in case of any fire outbreak.

The Onitsha Unit Commander of the FRSC, Anthony Metta when contacted for comments said that his men were still at the scene trying to handle the situation, adding that 22 bodies had so far been recovered and deposited at a nearby morgue while rescue operations continued.