17th June, 2012
Residents of Ikeja area of Lagos on Saturday trooped out in their hundreds to scoop kerosene from a gutter along the Agege Motor Road.
Eye witnesses said that the kerosene was discharged into the gutter by a truck that fell off the road while trying to negotiate a bend around midnight on Friday.
One of the eyewitnesses, Mr Francis Gabriel, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the residents rushed to the scene immediately they realised that the liquid content of the truck was kerosene.
He said that some policemen later assisted the truck driver to move the truck off the road in the bid to check the traffic congestion that had built up along the road.
“When the truck fell down last night we thought it was a petrol tanker, but the residents trooped out to the scene when they confirmed it was kerosene. We urged tankers drivers to be careful on the road so as to stop the incidence of falling petrol tankers,’’ he said.
One of the persons found scooping the product told that NAN that “we decided to scoop kerosene because it is an essential commodity now”.
“A bottle of kerosene is being sold for between N160 and N200, which many of us find very difficult to buy,’’ he said.
NAN reports that some persons scooped up to 50 and 100 litres of contaminated kerosene into jerry cans.
Mrs Titilayo Abdullahi, a shop owner around the place, said that shop owners within the area rushed out when the accident occurred last night.
“Nobody could wait to see if it was kerosene or petrol, what we were praying for was that it should not affect our shops.
“We thanked God this morning when we were told that it was kerosene,’’ Abdullahi said.