COMMUNITY leaders in Dikko, Gurara Local Government Area of Niger State have disclosed that over 100 people have been buried in a mass grave while about 88 others, who suffered varying degrees of burns, are still on admission in different hospitals in the state and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The community leaders led by Alhaji Garba Yusuf Tagwai and Mrs Rifkatu Adamu Chidawa, who have both served the state as commissioners, also explained that properties and goods worth several millions of naira were also destroyed in the resultant fire.
Tagwai, a former commissioner for local government and chieftaincy affairs, under former Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu, disclosed further that there was hardly any household in Dikko village that was not affected by the incident. Some households, he said, lost four or three people. A particular family lost two siblings and other relations.
Tagwai explained further that the community leaders had been going from house to house to commiserate with the bereaved families, wondering why and how anyone could risk his life to scoop spilled fuel of a fallen tanker.
“The rest is now history,” he said forlornly. “The community members are now counting their losses which are immeasurable at the moment.”
On why the villagers, especially the youth, could risk their lives just for a few gallons of petrol, Tagwai, who found such an action unjustifiable, reasoned that the growing poverty level and continued loss of livelihoods among the teeming poor could have fuelled their action.
“If the truth must be told, the poverty level in the country is high,” he opined, urging government at all levels to devise the means of reducing the poverty level in the society.” “Though government is trying its best, there is the need for them to do more with the view to alleviate the suffering of the people,” he advised.
On her part, Chidawa, a former commissioner for culture and tourism, who also spoke with Sunday Tribune shed more light on why the fatality was that high.
Though she blamed the bad condition of the road for being a major cause of accident, Chidawa said the tragic incident occurred on a Saturday which was a market day and the reason for the large number of people, adding that the community has been burying people every day since the incident happened.
“This is my community,” she said. “Last Sunday, we were able to bury about 79 dead bodies in a mass graves and the following day, another eight bodies were buried and I think that, up till today, over a hundred people that have died and 88 injured victims are still hospitalised in different hospitals for treatment.
“About 18 shops were destroyed with a lot of goods because the incident happened on a Saturday, which was a market day in the community and you know this is a very busy road where people pass on their way to Minna and to Kaduna and it is a junction that hosts a lot of people and this incident is heart-breaking.
“Our people have been weeping, dying and expressing their pains. A woman lost two or three of her children to this tragic incident,” she lamented, stressing that she and other leaders of the community had been warning people to refrain from activities that could cause fire. She revealed that major accidents occurred in September and October last year but did not result in calamity.
Mrs Chidawa blamed the poor condition of the road for most of the accidents, offering more insight into how the road, Minna-Suleja highway, has been neglected. According to her, effort to reconstruct it was started during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, but was neglected by the succeeding government of Muhamadu Buhari.
According to her, the road is central to the activities of the people in the state which requires urgent intervention of both the state and federal governments.
“I just hope that government would do something about the Minna-Suleja highway, because this road has been under construction since former President Goodluck Jonathan’s time and that is over 10 years now. After President Jonathan, we have had President Muhammadu Bihari. Now, President Bola Tinubu is there now.”
Wondering why a major road like that could be abandoned, Chidawa said the incessant carnage recorded on it should spur government to take action.
“People have been dying on this road because it is done half-way done and abandoned. And we have a lot of vehicles that are passing through here in Dikko. Some of these vehicles are going to Abuja, to Lagos and Kaduna because you know that this is a very serious junction that a lot of vehicles carrying people and goods from the North to the southern part of the country must use.
“We really want to plead with the government to hasten up and put this road so that the people will be assured of their safety,” she said.
Apart from the road, Chidawa stated that Dikko junction needs stronger security presence to control and curb unwholesome activities that could lead to disaster just as the fuel tanker explosion.
“We are appealing to the government to give us a big police division with more security personnel who will be able to control the people, unlike the present situation where there are just a few (hands) security personnel or few police operatives. I want to thank God for those who have been coming to Dikko, including the Senate President, who came with his people to commiserate with us in Dikko over the tragic tanker explosion that claimed the lives of our youths with several others who suffered varying degrees of burns in different hospitals receiving treatments.
“Since the incident, we have been coming to check the bereaved families to check the injured and commiserate with the families and up till today (last Thursday) another person, because some people suffered first degree of burns and the people keep dying and we have been burying people every day,” she stated further.
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