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Death toll from Saturday’s petrol tanker explosion has risen to 98 with 69 injured and 20 shops burnt to the ground.
The figure as of Sunday was 86 with 55 injured even as there was concern that many of the injured victims may not survive, given the grave nature of their injury.
The Director General of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, Abdullahi Baba-Arah, made the latest figure available to PUNCH Online in a statement on Monday.
He said, “More deaths have been recorded from the fire incident. The latest figure is now 98 deaths, 69 injured and 20 shops burnt down.”
Meanwhile, PUNCH Online learnt that so far, out of the 43 injured victims that were admitted at the General Hospital Suleja, seven of them have died due to the gravity of their injuries while three of the injured patients out of the 23 admitted at the General Hospital, Sabon-Wuse have also died.
Ten of the patients admitted at the General Hospital Suleja were referred for specialist care in Abuja while three of them were satisfactorily treated and discharged to recuperate at home.
The state government has assured all that it would defray the cost of treatment of the injured victims while the Federal Government has also said it would cater for the cost of treatment for all the injured victims referred to the FCT for more intensive treatment.
The fire incident occurred on Saturday morning when a speeding tanker loaded with fuel crashed and spilt all the fuel on the road.
Indigent residents of the state rushed to scoop the fuel on the road when the tanker caught fire and burnt most of them.
The dead have already been buried in a mass grave.
Condolences have been pouring in from across the country over the tragedy while the Federal Government has set up a committee to probe the cause of the tragedy.
