Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara has expressed sadness over the extent of carnage as a result of the fire incident caused by a tanker conveying premium motor spirit (PMS) along the Akpajo axis of the East-West road in Eleme local government area of the state.
A total of 70 vehicles were burnt while four persons have been confirmed dead after the tanker overturned on Friday night and spilled its contents, leading to fire outbreak.
Fubara, who spoke when he visited the site of the accident, in company of the Commissioner of Police, Olatunji Disu and the State Commissioner for Energy and Natural Resources, Mr Uchechukwu Nwafor, described the accident as very unfortunate.
The governor who disclosed that he got a call from the Managing Director of Indorama Petrochemical and Fertiliser Company Limited to inform him of the incident said he immediately routed a call to the security agencies with instruction that they visit the scene to secure the area to avoid escalation of the situation.
The governor said: “We are here to see for ourselves and get a first hand information of the incident of what happened yesterday night. About 7.30 – 8:00pm, we got information of the gravity of the incident. I was told that it was caused by a tanker vehicle that was conveying Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
“In fact, I got the information through the MD of Indorama, and I immediately alerted the security agencies to make sure they take control of the security situation in the area. And from what we are seeing this morning, it was not a pleasant case. We recorded a huge number of vehicles being destroyed and lives lost.”
Fubara explained that he had already requested relevant government agencies to provide him a detailed account of their findings to enable the state government take appropriate decisions and actions to significantly remedy the situation and reduce the negative impact on the affected people.
Fubara said: “I have already asked the relevant agencies to give us a full brief so that we can come into the situation fully by seeing to how much we can support the families that are bereaved, and also cushion the effect of the loses, which I believe, is no fault of a good number of them.
“We all know the situation of this road. It is really unfortunate. Most of our people, when plying this road, should ply it with caution.
“I believe very strongly that this situation would have been avoidable, if the motorists had behaved properly. But it is late already. The damage has happened. This is the situation we have found ourselves. We will see how we can control the aftermath,” the governor said.
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