Commuters travelling between Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, to states in the North-central region are now stranded as emergency officials battle to remove a petrol tanker which crashed at the Nyanya end of the road.

The tanker owned by B.G.K Nigeria Ltd, but painted in the colours of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, was coming from the Abuja end of the road when it suddenly lost control and crashed into an oncoming Golf car on the opposite lane.

The incident occurred at about 9 a.m, witnesses said.

The Golf car was completely destroyed but the occupants were rescued alive.

Emergency workers, comprising of the Federal Fire service, Federal Road Safety Commission, the Police, and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corpa, NSCDC, rushed to the scene of the accident for rescue and traffic control.

Their concern was to prevent the tanker, laden with petrol, from exploding, some of emergency workers said.

During the period, both sides of the dual lane highway were completely blocked, leaving commuters stranded.

UPDATE: 10:33 a.m

Emergency worker have pulled the truck away from the road. The lane leading out of Abuja have been opened and traffic is flowing but slowly.

UPDATE: 10:40 a.m.

The lane leading into Abuja was opened to traffic. The situation on the expressway has returned to normal.