Fred Itua, Abuja
Three days after three primary school pupils died in Abuja from an alleged food poisoning, another tragedy struck again in Zuba, Gwagwalada area council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Friday m. Three persons have been killed and two others left with various degrees of injury in a gas explosion.
Saturday Sun learnt that the victims were the gas attendants and a customer who brought the gas for refill.
According to one of the eye witnesses who simply identified herself as Victoria, said “the incident happened at about 9 am on Friday when an apprentice of a welder brought their cylinder to refill. There were four persons in the gas shop, the wife and three apprentices.
“When the boy came to refill the gas, two of the gas attendants came to attend to him. As they were trying to refill, there was an error as the attendants tried to figure out the fault, the gas cylinder exploded and turned them into shreds with limbs scattered all over the place.”
The eye witness said said the wife of the owner of the shop and one of the apprentices escaped death by whiskers and an apprentice of the side door neighbour who sells phones and accessories was left with various degrees of injuries, were rushed to the hospital at Diamond Crest for treatment.
According to her, one of the gas attendants that died was to graduate next month and be sentforth with his own shop fully furnished.
She further stated that the remains of the deceased were put together by policemen and taken to a nearby mortuary. The police also evacuated the remaining gas cylinders from the shop.
The Divisional Police Officer, Zuba Area command , CSP Dankwano Welson confirmed the incident to newsmen, when they visited the headqarter of Zuba Area Police Command.
According to him, a distress call was received by the police and immediately they swang into action. On getting there, the gas had exploded, the victims bodies were seen scattered all over the place.
“We carried them and picked the shattered parts of their bodies and deposited them at Gwagwalada Teaching Hospital Mortuary, and the one that sustained injury to Diamond Crest Hospital.
“We have released one of the deceased to his family to be buried according to Islamic rite and they have filled the necessary documents,” he said.
The DPO, said they evacuated the remaining gas cylinders to the Police station and sealed the shop. According to him, they sealed the shops because of security reasons, people might be going their for different reasons .