It was another tragic day on Lagos-Ibadan expressway, yesterday, as 24 vehicles were burnt after an articulated vehicle carrying fuel fell and caught fire.
In the resultant gridlock, thousands of passengers, including the wife of the governor of Oyo State, Mrs Florence Ajimobi, and a former deputy speaker of Ogun State House of Assembly, Hon. Ayo Odugbesan, were held for between five and twelve hours.
Odugbesan told Sunday Vanguard, last night, that he left Lagos around 5 a.m. heading to Abeokuta but didn’t reach his destination until 11 a.m.
Yesterday’s tragedy at Danco village came less than 48 hours after another fuel-laden articulated truck last control in Ibafo axis of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, setting several vehicles ablaze and killing about five persons.
Eye witnesses linked yesterday’s incident, which occurred around 2a.m., to the Thursday accident.
According to them, traffic had been diverted from the side of the expressway affected by the Thursday incident because the wreckage was obstructing the road when the articulated vehicle fell, spilling its contents and catching fire.
The vehicles in the vicinity were said to have been set ablaze as the spilled contents flowed to them.
The eye witnesses spoke of chaos as the passengers scrambled to escape the inferno.
Unconfirmed reports said those who could not make it out of their vehicles were roasted.
However, the Zonal Commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in charge of Lagos and Ogun States, Mr Ademola Lawal, yesterday, said that only two persons sustained injuries in the inferno and that nobody died.
According to Lawal, the injured persons were rushed to Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu where they were receiving treatment.
Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, visited the accident scene, yesterday, and expressed regrets that another accident of such magnitude occurred in less than 48 hours.
He blamed incessant accidents on the expressway on the bad state, noting that since it accounts for 70% of movement of goods across the nation, its reconstruction should be handled by a competent professional with proven integrity and expertise.
The governor ordered that heavy cranes be brought in to evacuate vehicles obstructing traffic on the road. Source: Vanguard
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