Onitsha Petrol tanker accident: Tears as victims’
relations besiege hospitals
on June 02, 2015
By Chimaobi Nwaiwu
Nnewi—TEARS flowed freely, yesterday, as relations of victims
of last Sunday’s petrol tanker fire incident in Onitsha, which claimed 69
lives, besieged hospitals where the victims were taken.
As early as 6a.m. yesterday,
hundreds of people living in Onitsha, Asaba and environs thronged the scene of
the accident and Toronto Hospital, Onitsha, the nearest hospital to the scene
of the incident, and other hospitals where surviving victims were admitted.
Meanwhile, one more person was
confirmed dead yeaterday, bringing the total number of victims to 70.
Confirming the death of the latest
victim, simply identified as Ajee, a driver admitted in Toronto Hospital,
Chairman of Anambra State branch of Nigerian Red Cross Society, NRSC, Professor
Peter Emeka-Katchy, said no other death, aside from that of Ajee, had been
recorded in any of the hospital the wounded victims were taken to.
Onitsha-Tanker-death-toll
He said: “Right now, I am leaving
the scene of the accident at Upper Iweka after visiting Toronto and General
Hospital, Onitsha, for St. Charles Boromeo Hospital for forensic tests on the
victims.
“You know that if we do not get that
test, it will be difficult to identify the corpses and that means if we do not
succeed, it will be mass burial for the victims.
“There is no truth that 48 more
people have died as a result of the accident.”
Vanguard investigations revealed that it was the mortuary attendants
at some of the hospitals visited that gave the information that 48 more victims
had died.
Anambra State Police Public
Relations Officer, Mr. Uche Eze, could not confirm the purported 48 deaths and
all efforts to get him to speak proved abortive.
When Vanguard visited the hospitals,
hundreds of people surged to see what happened as well as the remains of the
victims involved.
The Chief Medical Director of
Toronto Hospital, Onitsha, Dr Emeka Eze, told Vanguard that those admitted in
the hospital were in stable condition, adding that the hospital had been able
to cope with the large number of the victims and had all the necessary
medications and equipment meant to attend to them.
“As you can see, they are in good
and stable condition. We have been putting in our best and one good thing
working for us is that the hospital got the necessary medication and equipment
to attend to emergencies such as this,” he said.
In Onitsha General Hospital, a chief
matron, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that those admitted in the
emergency and accident unit of the hospital had been transferred to Anambra
State University Teaching Hospital, Amaku, Awka, the state capital.
“Those alive but wounded had been
transferred as early as 5 a.m. to Amaku Teaching Hospital,’’ she said.
In Borrowmeo Mission Hospital,
Onitsha; the security in the hospital restricted movement of people, who came
to sympathise with the victims, as most people throng the entrance of the
hospital.
At Toronto Hospital and Onitsha
General Hospital mortuaries, some of the corpses of the victim were seen piled
up at the backyard of the two hospitals, waiting for identification by
relatives and possible mass burial.
Vanguard counted over 30 corpses
dumped at the backyard of the two hospitals, while tears flowed freely on the
part of on-lookers, friends and relatives of those who died in the accident.
However, a bus conductor, Mr
Innocent Obioma, who was among those lamenting, said his master was affected
while he run to assist those in the vehicles the tanker fell on initially.
“As Oga Okoli jumped out of our bus
and attempted to help a woman with a baby in a bus, the tanker exploded and
everybody within the circumference, including Oga Okoli, got burnt instantly,’’
he said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment