By JAMES OGUNNAIKE, Abeokuta

At least three persons including a woman, her daughter and a vulcanizer, on Friday, suffered varying degrees of burns following a petrol-laden tanker, which fell and exploded at Ijaiye-Tutun, Alamala Barracks in Abeokuta North local government area of Ogun State.

The victims were rushed to Federal Medical Center, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta for medical attention. She identified the victims as Ashimiyu Otunba (vulcanizer), the woman as Risikatu Otunba and the daughter whose name could not be ascertained as of the time of filing this report.

About five houses, several shops, and a mosque reportedly got burnt to ashes in the incident. An eyewitness who identified herself as Mrs. Olufote said the incident happened when a fuel tanker suffered a flat tyre.

She explained that the driver alighted from the vehicle to negotiate with a vulcanizer beside the road when the tanker tilted and fell.

“The tanker had a flat tyre and in the process of trying to fix it, the tanker exploded and even the vulcanizer who was to work on the tyre was affected. “The vulcanizer was fixing a motorcycle tyre when the tanker exploded”.

“There were many houses that were affected, with some burnt to ashes. In fact, a mosque was also affected,” she added. Another witness said the victims were immediately rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, saying that at least five houses and several shops were burnt in the incident.

Babatunde Akinbiyi, the Public Relations Officer of the Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE ), confirmed the incident to newsmen in Abeokuta on Saturday.

The TRACE spokesperson stated that the tanker driver erroneously parked in a sloppy area while trying to fix his tanker’s tyre.

According to him, the container removed from the hook fell and exploded. Akinbiyi said the fire was later put out after some houses had been burnt. (Vanguard)