At least four people have been killed and over 70 vehicles razed following a fuel tanker explosion in the Eleme axis of the East-West Road in Rivers state.
SP Grace Iringe-Koko, spokesman of Rivers Police Command, who confirmed the incident in Port Harcourt on Saturday said the explosion occurred following a collision between a heavy-duty truck and a petrol-laden tankerat about 7.30pm on Friday.
The incident happened a few metres from the Indorama Petrochemical Company and roughly 10 kilometres from the Port Harcourt Refinery.
There was an extensive gridlock stretching over five kilometres on the road under reconstruction as part of the N200 billion Ring Road project by the Rivers Government.
Speaking on Saturday when he visited the scene of the explosion, Rivers State governor, Siminalayi Fubara, said, urged motorists to always exercise caution while on the road.
The Governor, accompanied by Rivers State Commissioner of Police, CP Olatunji Disu and Director of State Security Service (DSS), asked security agencies to give full brief of the situation.
“We are here to see for ourselves to get a first hand report of the incident that happened yesterday about 7:30pm that was caused by a tanker conveying PMS.
“I got the information through the MD of Indorama and I immediately alerted the security agencies to make sure they step in. From what we are seeing this morning it is not a pleasant situation.
“From what I am seeing a huge number of vehicles was destroyed,Souls lost .I have asked the security agencies to give us a full brief so that we can come into the situation fully by seeing how much we can support the families who are bereaved and how we can cushion the loss which is no fault of theirs.
“We all know the situation of this road. Is really really unfortunate .Most of our people when plying this road should ply with caution .I believe strongly that this situation would have been avoided if the motorists have behaved properly.
“It is late.This is situation we find ourselves.We will see how much we can control it”, he said.
