On Friday, July 28, 2017, it was reported that about 10 people were burnt beyond recognition while six others sustained serious injuries in an auto crash involving a fuel tanker and a commercial bus in Felele area of Lokoja, Kogi State. The fuel tanker burst into flames after colliding with the 18-seater commercial bus.
The then Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Kogi State, Mr. Segun Martins, who confirmed the incident, said most of the victims were passengers travelling in the bus. Also affected were one commercial tricycle operator, the driver and the fuel tanker motor boy.
Three days later, the Federal Road Safety Corps ( FRSC) on Saturday said the death toll in the Friday petrol tanker accident in Felele area of Lokoja, has risen to 13.
The state former FRSC Sector Commander, Olusegun Martins, told journalists in Lokoja that three other victims died Friday night. He said a staff of the Kogi state Polytechnic, Lokoja, was one of them.
The next day, FRSC begged relatives to come and claim corpses, victims of Kogi tanker fire.
The Sector Commander in the state, Mr Segun Martins, who made the plea in Lokoja, said that the corpses were made up of 11 males and two females. He told newsmen that the dead were largely the travellers in a commercial Toyota Hiace bus which left Abuja either for the South South Zone or South West Zone on July 28. He said the corpses were still being kept at the morgue of Ankuri Hospital in Lokoja, adding that some of them were still identifiable. Martins said that the bus was believed to be owned by Delta Line.
The July 28, 2017 accident actually claimed no less than 25 souls including an HND II Business Administration student of Kogi State Polytechnic, Mariam Amodu, from Ogbogbo in Igalamela-Odolu local government.
A former National President of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Dr Idris Omede called on Kogi state government to engage Federal Ministry of Works to fix bad portions on the Felele axis of Abuja-Lokoja-Okene road and begged that they treat the call as an emergency to halt wanton loss of lives from preventable causes on the road.
Also, member representing Lokoja II state constituency in the State House of Assembly, Idris Ndako, in a motion of urgent public importance, appealed to Kogi state government to call on Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to the repair the pot holes around the Felele axis of Abuja-Lokoja road. He called on the state government to establish and equip more fire service stations along Lokoja-Banda-Abuja road to tackle emergency situations within the area.
He said the recurrence of fatal accidents on the Felele-Lokoja-Abuja highway which led to the loss of over 20 innocent lives and properties worth millions of Naira destroyed on July 28, 2017 was becoming a source of concern.
Barely two years after, eight people perished on Monday morning of November 18, 2019 while seven others sustained various degree of injuries as a petrol laden tanker with apparent brake failure rammed into other vehicles on its descent around the Felele axis of the Abuja-Lokoja highway, in Kogi State.
The ghastly crash involving three cars, four tricycles, two motorcycles and a bus, resulted in angry youths taken over the expressway in protest around 8.45am. The driver of the trailer which was coming from the Lagos end of the highway, he lost control as a result of brake failure, leading to the death of innocent citizens who left their houses in search of their daily bread.
FRSC attributed the accident to brake failure by the white coloured petrol tanker marked JEG141XA DAF, saying 17 people were involved in the accident. The victims were taken to Federal Medical Central and the Specialist Hospital both in Lokoja by FRSC.
Calls for rehabilitation of bad portions of this road and appeal for fire service stations along the route were not heeded and once again, on Wednesday, September 23, 2020, fatal accident involving a fuel tanker occurred again!
A Pastor his wife and three children; pupils in a school bus and several others were roasted in the inferno. About 30 souls were lost!
This is the third torrid, lives wasting fuel tanker accident occurring around same spot in Lokoja within three years.
Reacting, a former Deputy Chief of Staff to Kogi State Deputy Governor, Prince Richard Akanmode said Wednesday tanker explosion was one accident too many.
He advised that the setback along the entire stretch at Felele be observed.
“The traders along that corridor need to be protected from themselves. Some of the vehicles clustering the area can be emptied into the motor park that has remained unused for years. The town planning department also needs to keep unauthorised structures away, to allow for better flow of human and vehicular traffic,” he said.
For the Executive Director, Centre for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution, Comrade Idris Miliki, “accidents will always occur, any time anyway and anywhere, however, the response strategies put in place is important and fundamental.”
The activist bemoaned the tanker accident that claimed lives of several persons including school children.
He said the continued closure of Federal Medical Center in Lokoja is worrisome and unnecessary in the face of regular mishaps that requires urgent medical attention.
“We call on all stakeholders to prevail on the both the state and federal government to ensure re-opening of Federal Medical Center in Lokoja.”
Distraught residents along Felele road were livid with rage over continued reckless driving by truck and tanker drivers which has led to a repeated killing of people in the area.
They called on government to stop tanker drivers from plying the route if they can’t maintain the speed limit on the road as they are tired of burying their loved ones every year because of tanker drivers.
