FG directs transfer of tanker explosion survivors to tertiary medical facilities

The federal government has directed that the survivors of the recent tanker explosion in Niger state be transferred to tertiary healthcare facilities.

Mohammed Idris, minister of information and national orientation, announced the directive on Sunday when he led a delegation to assess the scene of the explosion in Suleja.

Rabiu Ibrahim, the special assistant on media to Idris, said Nentawe Yilwatda, the minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation, and some heads of agencies were part of the delegation.

Idris cited prompt and enhanced medical care as reasons for transferring the survivors from the Suleja General Hospital.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is deeply saddened by what has happened. He asked us to come here to see the situation,” the statement quoted the minister as saying.

“We have just gone round the wards, and we have seen those that are very critically injured, and as we are visiting, one of them, unfortunately, passed on, and we were told that this is the eighth victim of the fire explosion that has just passed on today, and what we are seeing is the dire need of emergency medical attention, which the federal government is taking.

“The minister of health and the National Emergency Management Agency and all agencies of government will ensure that all these victims are immediately evacuated and taken to the intensive care unit of the immediate available tertiary institutions.”

Idris commended the Niger state government for its swift response to the incident, especially in the provision of emergency medical response.

The minister also expressed concern over the loss of some 265 lives to tanker explosions in the past five months.

“The president is really saddened by what has happened, and he is worried to the extent that he has said that a high-powered committee is set up to look at these incidences,” he said.

“From September last year to this time, we had four of these major incidences. We had the first one between Ibadan and Ife, where a tanker exploded and houses and cars were engulfed in fire, and about a day after, here in Niger state in Agaie, about 48 persons lost their lives. This is on the eighth of September 2024.

“Not long afterwards, on the 15th of October, again in 2024, about 144 people also lost their lives in Jigawa state in a similar incident, and now only yesterday, here at a junction, nearly 80 people lost their lives.

“If you put these figures together, you will see that over 265 people have so far lost their lives in this kind of incident.

“The government is very worried, and as a result of that, it set up a committee comprising the Ministry of Information and National Orientation, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, and other critical stakeholders like NEMA, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, the Standard Organisation of Nigeria, the Federal Road Safety Commission, NARTO, NUPENG, IPMAN, and all other stakeholders to come together to find the remote and immediate causes of this and how to avoid recurrence.”

The minister said the National Orientation Agency (NOA) will also intensify public awareness campaigns to educate citizens on the dangers of scooping petroleum products following fuel tanker accidents to avert such incidents.