Police avert another pipeline fire

Olalekan Olabulo, Lagos - 28.12.2007

What would have been another major fire explosion was on Thursday afternoon averted by the police in Lagos State as members of the Hausa community in Maryland area of the state attempted to set a fully loaded tanker on fire.

The men were protesting the death of one of them, who was killed when the trailer with the registration number XD755 BDJ ran over a motorcyclist at Nitel Junction, along Mobolaji Bank Anthony way in Ikeja.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the motorcycle rider, a teenager, and his passenger were running after the driver of the trailer who allegedly hit him around the Maryland junction.

The driver of the trailer, in an attempt to evade being arrested by the okada riders and others coming behind him, ran over the motorcycle, killing the rider instantly while the passenger was severely injured.

The situation grew out of control as hundreds of angry Hausa community trooped to the scene and were about to set the the tanker on fire when about five teams of polive personnel stormed the scene and doused the tension.

The arrival of the policemen prevented what would have been another fire disaster as hundreds of vehicles and houses would have been consumed in yet another fire incident less than three days after 46 people were killed in a pipeline explosion in Iru Local Government Area of the state.

When the Nigerian Tribune visited the scene of the incident, the body of the okada rider was still under the propeller of the fuel tanker.