‘Black marketer’ dies in culvert ‘while retrieving hoarded petrol’ in Abuja

A yet-to-be-identified alleged seller of black market petrol has died in a culvert in the federal capital territory (FCT).

Two persons were said to have gotten stuck in the culvert at Katampe on Monday, but one person was rescued.

A video, which surfaced earlier online, showed two fire trucks at the scene of the incident while rescue efforts were ongoing.

Confirming the incident to TheCable, Manzo Ezekiel, spokesman of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said during the rescue operation, a fire service officer also got stuck.

“It’s a case of two persons being trapped in a big culvert. It seems it’s these boys that hoard fuel because it happened in-between Shema and AA Rano petrol station in Katampe. As a result of the rain yesterday, they tried to go and check the petrol that they hid there and got stuck,” he said.

“Once they got stuck, their friend raised an alarm so the fire service went there to rescue them. In the process, they were able to rescue one person, but the fire service officer got trapped there.

“As I speak to you now, rescue efforts are ongoing.”

Giving an update shortly after, the spokesman said the fire service officer had been rescued while one other person stuck in the tunnel had died.

“All the rescue operators are still there trying to remove his corpse,” he added.