29 dead, 16 injured in Yobe auto crash

Twenty-nine people were killed and 16 injured in an auto crash that occurred on Friday on the Potiskum-Kano Road, at Daniski Village, Nengere Local Government Area of Yobe State.

Eleven of the victims were burnt beyond recognition, according to a statement by the Deputy Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Frank Mba, a chief superintendent of police.

Mba said the accident happened when two Toyota Hiace buses travelling in opposite directions had a head-on collision, which resulted in instant fire.

Policemen from Nengere Division, Yobe State Command, assisted by members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, responded to the incident.

The injured persons were rushed to the General Hospital, Potiskum, while the dead bodies were deposited at the hospital’s mortuary.

Expressing his concern over the incessant accidents on the highways, Mba said the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, advised Nigerians to ensure that their vehicles are roadworthy at all times.

He warned against reckless driving, over speeding, over loading and flagrant disobedience of road traffic laws and regulations.

The police boss directed officers and men of the force attached to the newly rejuvenated Police Highway Patrol to take proactive measures at all times.

He ordered his men to work with other security agencies to assist road users in preventing accidents and rendering prompt assistance to victims of road crashes.

Saturday 1 September 2012

http://www.punchng.com/news/29-dead-16-injured-in-yobe-auto-crash/

Scores dead in Arepo oil pipeline vandalisation fire

Scores of pipeline vandals and others scooping petroleum products from the vandalised pipeline were burnt to death in Arepo, a village off the Lagos Ibadan expressway, when the highly inflamable product caught fire.

An eyewitness said Officials of the Fire Service and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Thursday evening, battled to put out the fire from the vandalized pipeline.

Meanwhile, some armed oil pipeline vandals believed to be part of the gangs that have been attacking oil pipeline in the area are hampering recure work at the scene of the fire as they chased emergency workers and security officials away on Friday.

Men of the National Emergency Management Agency, the Federal Fire Service and National Security and Civil Defence Corps had to scamper to safety when they encounter the hoodlums.

The armed men were believed to have vandalized the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s pipeline that ignited the inferno at Arepo.

The security men and rescue workers were at the scene to remove the corpses of the suspected vandals, who had been killed in the inferno earlier on Thursday.

NEMA officials and civil defence personnel, who had gone to the village to monitor the rescue operations, as well as journalists trying to access the village in canoes, were waylaid by hoodlums, who hid themselves in the bush.

NEMA Information Officer, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, told journalists that the agency and others were at the scene to recover dead bodies littering scene of the fire incident.

He said, “Our intention was to evacuate bodies and to help the fire fighters to extinguish the fire that has been burning since yesterday (Thursday).

“But as you can see, the vandals have refused to allow us to perform our work. We are even lucky to still be alive but we have contacted the military and they are on their way.

“We don’t want the bodies to decompose and begin to pollute the environment. The remains will spill into the surrounding stream and people drinking the water or using it for domestic purposes will definitely be at risk.”

Farinloye, however, gave the assurance that the rescue work would soon commence as the Director General of NEMA, Alhaji Muhammad Sidi, had requested the deployment of military personnel to flush out the hoodlums.

Saturday 1 September 2012

http://oguntoday.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/scores-dead-in-arepo-in-oil-pipeline.html

52 people dead after torrential rains flood Niger

Emergency officials in Niger say that 52 people have died after heavy rains caused rivers to overflow and buildings to crumble.

Col. Mahamane Laminou Moussa, the director general of the country's fire brigade service, said not a single neighborhood of the capital, Niamey, was spared. He said that on the night of Aug. 20, 4.7 inches of rain (119 millimeters) fell in the capital, pushing water under people's doors and causing rivers to rise to the highest levels since 1929.

In the capital, around 400,000 people are living in emergency shelters in schools and mosques.

In the northern province of Agadez, 81 villages have been flooded, leaving 44,600 people homeless. In Dosso district, 14,588 houses were destroyed. In Tillabery region, nearly 1,500 acres of rice fields were flooded.

Saturday 1 September 2012

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/08/31/52-people-dead-after-torrential-rains-flood-niger.html

8 dead after canoe capsizes outside Guinea capital

Survivors say at least eight people have died and another 30 are missing after a canoe overloaded with merchandise capsized in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Conakry, the capital of Guinea.

Ibrahima Bangoura, one of the survivors, said the boat was traveling Friday from the capital to the island of Loos Kassa, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) away. They had just left the port when a violent wind picked up the wooden vessel and smashed it on the rocks. He says there were around 50 people on board, mostly market women. He could hear them crying out.

At the morgue, an AP reporter saw the bodies of six women and two children. A medical official who requested anonymity said they had all drowned. He pointed to the blood coming out of their noses — a sign, he said, that their lungs had burst.

Saturday 1 September 2012

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/09/01/8-dead-after-canoe-capsizes-outside-guinea-capital.html