The last might not have been heard about the Lagos tanker explosion, which claimed many lives, as indications have emerged many victims were secretly buried by the authorities.
A tanker laden with over 33,000 liters of premium motor spirit (PMS) on June 28, fell along Otedola Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and spilled its contents.
Not long after, the tanker exploded with huge balls of fire that burnt everything on its path including human beings, vehicles and an uncompleted building near the scene of the accident.
While the Lagos State Government and security agencies put the number of deaths at nine, many have insisted the number of fatalities was far higher.
A day after the accident, The NEXT EDITION visited the scene and some witnesses insisted the number of deaths was higher than what the government gave.
One of the witnesses took our correspondent to a site where he alleged the victims of the accident where buried.
The source, who pleaded not to be named for reasons of his safety said, “I was involved in the rescue operation yesterday. I worked so hard that some people thought I was a government official.
“I could not sleep last night because of the shock. I was just trying to put myself in the shoes of those who lost their loved ones in that manner.
“This morning around 6am, I saw an excavator digging that place over there. Look you can see heap of sand. Some security agents working with government put some of the bodies there,” he said.
When contacted, the spokesperson of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Bisi Kazeem, denied victims of the accident were given a secret burial.
Mr. Kazeem said, “Nobody was buried. To our knowledge, nothing like that happened. We were at the scene and nine body bags were brought to put nine dead bodies inside.
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“To the knowledge of everybody at the scene and the bodies were counted before Lagos State Ambulance Service vehicles took the bodies away. We were not privy to any burial and we don’t even believe anything like that happened.
“It’s only that people are asking how 54 vehicles got burnt and only 9 people died. They have forgotten that before the fire outbreak from the tanker, people were alerted and a lot of them ran out of their vehicles.
“That is why we recorded a lot of survivors who have come to give details of how the survived. That is our position on the matter,” Mr. Kazeem said.
However, attempts to speak with the Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, failed as he would not pick calls or respond to text messages sent to him by this newspaper.