Man suffocates to death inside petrol tank in Kwara
By Stephen Olufemi Oni, Ilorin
Tragedy struck in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, as a 29-year-old tank installer/maintainer, simply identified as Ahmed, was recovered dead from a petrol tank at a popular filling station in the metropolis.
According to the spokesman of the state Fire Service, Hassan Adekunle, “the terrible incident occurred Saturday night at about 19:25hrs, at the Bovas Filling Station, along Post Office/Offa Garage Road, Ilorin.
The victim, the spokesman said, came from Ibadan with his boss, Abdulbasit Oladimeji, for a maintenance job at the petrol filling station, adding that when they were performing the maintenance work inside the petrol tank at the filling station, the deceased “got suffocated and eventually died in the tank”.
Operatives of the Fire Service, he added, were able to evacuate the man’s body from the tank and handed over to his boss, Abdulbasit Oladimeji.
It was gathered that the man’s death occurred as a result of carelessness on the part of the deceased for his failure to use necessary safety gear before engaging in the work.
Meanwhile, the Director, Kwara State Fire Service, Prince Falade John Olumuyiwa, has urged the public, particularly workers, to always be safety conscious by using safety equipment at all times.