The death toll from the tanker explosion at the Ugwu-Onyeama axis of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway has increaseed to 23, following the deaths of two additional victims who had been receiving treatment in the hospital.
Franklin Agbakoba, the Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Enugu State Command, confirmed the latest fatalities on Tuesday in Enugu. He stated that two female victims—one at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Ituku-Ozalla, and another at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu—succumbed to their injuries after battling for about a week.
The deadly incident occurred on January 25, at approximately 11:30 a.m., when a fuel-laden tanker suffered a brake failure, overturned, and exploded. The inferno engulfed multiple vehicles, killing 11 people instantly before emergency responders could arrive.
The situation worsened in the days that followed:
January 26: The death toll rose to 18.
January 29: The number of fatalities increased to 21.
February 5: The latest update brings the toll to 23.
Following the explosion, emergency personnel, including FRSC officers and the Enugu State Fire Service, swiftly responded to the scene.
The fire was eventually extinguished, and the bodies of the deceased were evacuated, while injured survivors were rushed to major hospitals in Enugu.
According to Agbakoba, five victims were initially admitted to UNTH:
One succumbed to injuries at the end of January.
Another remains hospitalized.
Three victims from the same family were discharged against medical advice and opted for traditional treatment at home.
At the ESUTH Teaching Hospital, Parklane, Enugu:
Three female victims remain hospitalized.
Two patients were referred to the National Orthopaedic Hospital due to severe burns.
At the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu:
One of the three victims admitted six days ago has died.
Two remain in critical condition.
They were later joined by another victim referred from ESUTH.
Agbakoba had previously disclosed that the tragic accident involved 44 individuals, as well as 16 vehicles (both commercial and private) and a commercial tricycle.
In total:
23 people have now lost their lives (8 males and 15 females).
Another 23 sustained injuries and were treated across three major government hospitals:
UNTH Ituku-Ozalla
ESUTH Teaching Hospital, Parklane
National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu.
The rising death toll underscores the severity of burn injuries and the urgent need for improved emergency response and medical facilities in Nigeria. Authorities have continued investigations into the accident, with calls for stricter safety regulations for fuel tankers to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
The death toll from last Saturday’s attack on Ungwan Wakili community in Zango Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State has risen to 17.
At the scene of the attack, at least, 14 corpses were recovered this morning, aside from the one person killed yesterday and the two people that died in the hospital.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) gathered from the military on the ground that aside from the pockets of complaints of cow poisoning and destruction of farm produce by the locals and Fulani, which they have been resolving, the recent attack might be due to the killing of a Fulani herder four days ago in Ungwan Juju apparently in retaliation of the killing of one of their locals last month.
Speaking to newsmen, the council chairman, Zango Kataf Local Government, Mr Francis Sani Zimbo, condemned the barbaric attack assuring that investigations are on to unravel the perpetrators to bring them to book.
He expressed regret on why all the Mobile Police checkpoints within the affected communities were withdrawn before last night’s attack.
Sani explained that the gunmen suspected to be militia herders invaded the community at about 9pm on Saturday and started shooting sporadically on people’s houses.
The chairman disclosed that fifteen locals mostly women and children were killed in the process, either from gunshots or machete cuts.
He further explains that the gunmen operated for some hours without any resistance from security operatives despite being located close to a mobile police checkpoint.
Meanwhile, the locals, while expressing their displeasure in protests, wondered how an attack will last about 40 minutes without a single attacker killed by the security operatives even with the presence of a forward operating base within the community.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that among the casualties are mostly women and children including a woman and her baby.
Following the devastating natural disaster that engulfed the European country of Turkey, the death toll in the Syrian-Turkish border region has risen to over 5, 000.
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay, announced during a press conference on Tuesday that Monday’s massive earthquakes and powerful aftershocks had killed at least 3,419 people and injured another 20,534 in southeastern part of the country.
Additionally, at least 1,603 were killed and 3,649 injured in both government- and rebel-controlled areas of northwestern Syria, according to combined figures from the Syrian Ministry of Health and the Syrian civil defense and medical group that operates in opposition-held areas, known as the White Helmets.
According to the Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, AFAD, more than 20,000 people were injured while many others were still trapped in the rubbles. The authority added that over 5,700 buildings were reported to have collapsed.
Weather conditions were also very bad in the region, said Orhan Tatar, head of the earthquake and risk reduction department.
He noted that the bad weather included heavy snowfall, downpours and strong winds in the affected regions. Temperatures are around freezing point in some places.
The first earthquake measured at a magnitude of 7.8, struck southeast Turkey in the border region with Syria early on Monday morning and was followed at about noon by another quake with a magnitude of 7.5 with more than 285 aftershocks.
Widespread flooding caused by water overflowing from local rivers, unusual rainfalls and the release of excess water from Lagdo dam in neighbouring Cameroon’s northern region, has killed 500 persons, and displaced 1.4 million Nigerians in 31 affected states, according to government sources.
Non-implementation of environmental guidelines, inadequate infrastructure and mismanagement of special intervention funds have resulted in annual flooding. Still, authorities say the magnitude of devastation caused by this year’s flood is the worst the country has experienced.
Head of Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency Mustapha Habib Ahmed has advised all the governments of the frontline states to move away communities at risk of flood, identify safe higher grounds for evacuation of persons and prepare adequate stockpiles of food and non-food items.
Satellite imagery from Landsat 9 showed significant swelling of the Niger and Benue rivers in southern Nigeria, where, according to the U.S. space agency NASA, floodwaters “inundated numerous communities.”
So far, over 70,566 hectares of farmland and 45,249 homes have been affected, the permanent secretary in Nigeria’s Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Nasir Sani-Gwarzo has said.
Weather Advisories and Poor Preparations
In February, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) presented its 2022 Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP), stating that the total amount of rainfall for this year is expected to be normal in most parts of the country, adding that dry spells of varying degrees ranging from mild to severe would be experienced across various parts of the country.
According to the report, rainfall onset dates are predicted to be about the same as long-term average dates in most parts of the country. “Cessation of rainfall is anticipated to begin in the north, from early-October to mid-November, in the central states, and finally ceasing around mid-December in the southernmost and coastal parts of the country,” NiMet said in the report.
Over 70,566 hectares of farmland and 45,249 homes have been affected by flooding.
However, in August, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), disclosed that the agency had identified 233 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in 32 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) expected to experience flooding in 2022.
Director-General of the Agency Mustapha Ahmed, said at the time that advisory letters and maps showing predicted flood risk areas in various states had been sent to the respective state governments, and urged state and local emergency management stakeholders to act proactively.
However, state governments reportedly disregarded the warnings and weather advisories issued by various Federal Government agencies on the impending devastating floods of 2022.
Head of the Nigeria Hydrological Services (NIHSA) Clement Nze, during an interview with ChannelsTV that the weather predictions were out early enough to set the tone for what to expect in the course of the year and warnings issued to each state government in Nigeria and relevant ministries like agriculture, environment and aviation, informing them of the specific risk areas and the necessary measures they ought to take.
“If our predictions were heeded by relevant sub-nationals, we would not have been where we are today,” Eze said.
Interventions Towards Mitigating Devastating Floods
Under the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), the Ecological Fund was established in 1981 through the Federation Account Act of 1981 with the primary objective of establishing a pool of fund that would be solely devoted to funding ecological projects to mitigate serious ecological problems.
The Fund constitutes 1% of the Federation Account and it is known as Derivation and Ecology Fund and as of June, a total of 266 out of 332 ecological projects approved within the last seven years, had reportedly been implemented across the country, while the remaining 66 are at different stages of completion.
States and Local Governments receive their share of the Derivation and Ecology Fund as part of their monthly allocation at the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) monthly meetings, but the disbursement and utilization of this fund has come under scrutiny in recent times.
As floods sweep through communities, Nigerians have continuously called on the Federal Government for assistance, but the Presidency has said State Governments should be held accountable.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity Garba Shehu, said the ongoing flooding was not a national-level emergency and while the administration would not fail to intervene in moves to alleviate the flooding burden, states should explain how they have been deploying their share of the fund
“We call on governors of those states that have swung into action and engaged the necessary gear to continue with their efforts, and those that have not, to immediately face their duties of managing the flooding within their jurisdictions.
“Each of the three tiers, the local government, the state government and the Federal Government has a sizeable budget at its disposal, allocated monthly precisely for dealing with these state-level natural emergencies. It is not clear why some of the state governments in question are not already drawing upon those funds to tackle the current emergency,” Shehu said.
The House of Representatives has launched an investigation into remittances to the Ecological Fund and withdrawals from the account between 2010 and 2022, alleging mismanagement of funds by the beneficiaries.
The House Committee on Ecological Fund is also mandated to investigate the utilisation of the Ecological Fund by benefiting government’s departments and agencies (MDAs) within the same period and establish infractions.
Meanwhile, the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry has begun to distribute 12,000 metric tons of food and non-food items to states devastated by the flooding.
The death toll in a gas explosion that occurred in Kano State on Tuesday has increased to nine.
The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs made this known while announcing the arrival of the Director-General of the National Emergency Agency, Mustapha Habib Ahmed, at the scene of the incident.
Earlier, the police command in Kano State confirmed the death of four persons, saying that gas, not a bomb exploded on Tuesday morning.
“Nine dead bodies have been recovered so far from the rubble of a collapsed building beside a primary school following an explosion from a gas cylinder at Aba Road in Sabon Gari area of Kano State.
“DG @nemanigeria Mustapha Habib Ahmed was at the site of the incident and coordinated the rescue operations. NEMA is presently coordinating the rescue operations with sister agencies,” it tweeted.
TheNewsGuru.com had earlier broken the news about the explosion with our correspondent keeping tabs on further development from the incident.
The death toll from the collapsed three-storey building at Ebute Meta, Lagos, as at Monday morning has risen to five, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) officials say.
An old three-storey building collapsed at No. 24 Ibadan Street, Herbert Macaulay Way, Ebute Meta, on Sunday night at about 10.56 p.m.
The Zonal Coordinator Southwest, NEMA, Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, told NAN in Lagos that the deceased persons included three males and two females.
The number of rescued occupants remained 23.
Rescue operations are ongoing at the site of the incident in search of four of the remaining occupants of the building.
The body of a student on industrial training was, on Sunday evening, recovered from the collapsed three-storey building at Yaba area of Lagos, thus raising the death toll to five.
Zonal Coordinator, South-West of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, confirmed the development to newsmen in Lagos.
A relative of the IT student, simply identified as Damola, told the emergency rescue team that their son reported to duty the day the building collapsed and had yet to be found.
According to reports, the clue came about the time rescue and recovery operation was to be concluded, having rescued two persons and recovered four bodies from the rubbles of the collapsed building.
Farinloye said that the mother of Damola fainted when one of his relatives identified the body to be his.
The three-storey building had collapsed on Saturday afternoon at No. 16, Akanbi Crescent, off Adesina Street, Harvey, Yaba.
It took the combined team of officials of NEMA, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Nigeria Police Force and the Fire Service about 24 hours to get to the bottom of the rubbles.
The death toll in the building ruin that happened in Lagos State on Sunday has increased to eight.
Officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency said one more body was recovered by emergency responders.
LASEMA spokesperson, Nosa Okunbor, also stated that 20 people were rescued while giving an update Monday morning.
He gave the breakdown as “10 seriously injured and taken to Lagos Island General Hospital, 10 mildly injured and treated at the scene. Eight fatalities.”
TheNewsGuru recalls that a three-storey building under construction collapsed in the Obalende area of Lagos State on Sunday.
Though the source of the collapse is yet to be identified, it was learnt that the building was under construction when it collapsed around 5.40 pm.
The number of deaths thus far in Nigeria as a result of COVID-19 complications almost reached a thousand threshold on Thursday after seven people succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours.
Thursdays’ death tally took the total number of fatalities in the west African nation to 992.
Authorities have issued a fresh warning to citizens to take preventive measures against the coronavirus as the country’s death toll nears 1,000.
“Figures show that Nigeria is sadly approaching the symbolic 1,000 number of fatalities, a grim reality that should be a wakeup call for us,” Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said Monday at a briefing in Abuja.
Nigeria’s total coronavirus cases surpassed 50, 00 on Wednesday.
Four hundred and seventy six new infections were recorded from the virus in the past 24 hours pushing the total number of confirmed deaths from the virus to 50,964.
This was disclosed by the NCDC, the agency heading Nigeria’s national response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the deadly pneumonia-like disease that has spread to over 200 countries, infecting more than 22 million.
Nigeria has been reporting cases below 500 for weeks, except Wednesday when 593 cases were found.
According to the NCDC data, there are still over 12, 000 active cases across the country.
A total of 37, 569 infected persons have recovered and have been discharged after treatment in the country’s 36 states and federal capital, Abuja.
