By Amos Aar
COMMUTERS on plying Makurdi-Apir Road on Monday saw hell as they were held up for several hours when a tanker conveying forty thousand (40,000) litres of fuel crashed with a car at Mechanic Village at about 7pm and totally blocked the highway till Monday afternoon.
The incident caused heavy traffic jam as motorists coming in and out of Makurdi town were stranded on either side. Some of the vehicles later managed to negotiate through residential houses to dodge the affected area.
An eyewitness and resident of Akanshio Community, John Agbe, told National Record that the accident involving the truck and the car occurred Sunday night at about 7pm as that sport of the road which is very bad. There was initial panic by residents of the area fearing that there would be a fire outbreak.
“There is a very bad pothole before mechanic village. Two of them were trying to dodge themselves on the road and incidentally, the small car touched the tanker and the tanker wanted to dodge the pothole entered cross the road,” Agbe explained.
Commenting, State Coordinator, Nigeria Mainstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Makurdi office, Mohammed Salihu, said that immediately his office was alerted, he made arrangement with Petroleum Tankers Drivers Association to help address the situation and safety measures were put in place to trans-load the product before the truck was towed. At the end of the day, this truck was brought out safely and everybody was safe”, Salihu said
Operations Officer, Benue State Fire Service, John Ahula, said they were fully on ground to prevent fire outbreak.
“We slept here because we were trying to calm the whole situation down,” Ahula said.
On his part, Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Benue State Command, Ibrahim Abubakar, said four people were involved in the accident though there was no injury. He attributed the accident to break failure of the truck when the driver attempted to dodge a pothole.
He cautioned that “anytime they want to dodge a pothole as they are coming on the road, they should do it by the right-hand side always. That’s to make sure that they are not going to meet any oncoming vehicle.”
Some travellers into Makurdi, who were conversant with the Yaikyo-Terwase Agbadu-International Market Road, had to reverse back to Apir market to follow the road to town while those who met the tanker while exiting Makurdi had to turn back to town to ply the Terwase-Agbadu-International Market-Apir Road.
Heavy duty vehicles that could not manoeuvre their way out had to queue there until the crashed tanker was towed off the road. But manoeuvring through people’s compounds was not without cost implication as youths allegedly blocked some of the alternative routes, extorting motorists plying their areas before they could be allowed access.
A motorist, Mr Daniel Akpa, said he paid the area boys five hundred naira (N500) to be allowed to pass.
He wrote on Facebook: “I ran into that gridlock, followed one community street and to drive cross that route took me 1hr plus. The youth of that area saw an opportunity and they collected 500 naira before they allowed me to cross. It’s well.”
Expressing his fear of a possible fire outbreak, Monday Ibrahim wrote: “Law enforcement agents should prevent people from scooping the product to avert fire disaster.”
National Record learnt that Mr Monday Ibrahim had recalled what happened on the same road on 1st July, 2019 at Ahumbe community, near Aliade, Gwer East local government headquarters, when an oil tanker crashed and residents went scooping fuel and over 50 persons died in the process including 2 journalists and sympathisers who rushed there to rescue victims!
The deplorable condition of the Makurdi-Aliade road, just like almost all other roads across the state, has continued to cause accidents, claiming lives on a daily basis.
Residents said no week passes without an accident involving heavy duty vehicles at Apir, close to petroleum depot where the road is terribly bad!
National Record recalls that this kind of road block by a tanker as a result of an accident occurred in the same area on 1st September, 2022 when youths in the area who blocked the road and protested for many hours. They had called on the federal government to rehabilitate the road since it is a federal high way.
