Driver, conductor die scooping fuel in tanker

Two persons, suspected to be the driver and conductor of a tanker conveying Petroleum Motor Spirit, PMS, have died in Aba, Abia State

It was gathered that the bodies were evacuated by men of Ndiegoro Police Division in the premises of the State Fire Service along Constitution Crescent, Aba.

Sources revealed that the duo went inside the tanker to scoop the leftover of the product they discharged at a filling station in the city and were choked to death when the cover closed in on them.

An official of the Fire Service, who refused to have his name in print, told newsmen that they later recovered two 50-litre jerry cans, which the deceased were suspected to be using to scoop the residue inside the tanker.

According to him, the driver and the conductor are suspected to have died as a result of the fuel vapour, which they inhaled while inside the tank.

The fireman said: “We suspect that they might have died as a result of the vapour they inhaled while trying to scoop the remaining fuel inside the tanker after they discharged the tanker’s content at the designated filling station.

“The bodies of the driver and the conductor, when they were brought out, had started decomposing and increasing in size, which is an indication that they may have died inside the tanker over two days ago and it is like they have always done this kind of thing before the incident.”

Contacted, spokesman of Abia State Police Command, DSP Ezekiel Onyeke, confirmed the incident.
He said the corpses of the victims had been deposited in an undisclosed morgue in the city, while the truck had been towed away to Ndiegoro Police Division.