Burnt to Death: How Niger community lost scores of residents in petrol tanker explosion

How did it happen?

That was the question everyone was asking on that fateful day after a fuel tanker explosion killed at least 86 people in Dikko, Gurara Local Government Area of Niger State.

At around 7 a.m. on Saturday, 18 January, the 60,000-litre petrol-laden tanker detached from its head and fell near Sabon Kasuwa community along Dikko Junction.

A witness, Abdulmalik Jibo, told PREMIUM TIMES that arrangements were made immediately to transfer the fuel “in the tanker to another tanker.”

“The drivers were trying to transfer the petrol to another tanker using a pumping machine,” he continued, noting that he was not at the scene when the tankers caught fire around 10 a.m.

However, witnesses, including a man who lost his multimillion-naira business to the inferno, said the fire was caused by the pumping machine being used to transfer the fuel.

“The pumping machine was not far from the fallen tanker,” said Abubakar Yau, a witness who operates a scavenging shanty across the incident scene.

“As the fuel was being transferred, people kept coming from surrounding communities with buckets. The place became crowded, and suddenly, we heard the thing explode, burning the two tankers and sparing no one with an atom of petrol on their bodies.”

The explosion destroyed five shanties, including a POS stand, a cold room and other business facilities.

Cries in the air

When the tankers exploded, the force threw some victims into the air and held some in its grip.

“About four people were thrown southward. We could hear them crying and screaming in the air,” Abubakar Jibrin, a witness who narrowly escaped the fire, told PREMIUM TIMES.

“Despite suffering in the air, these people still lost their lives. They were burnt to death, but not like others burnt beyond recognition,” added Mr Jibrin, who also lost his grinding workshop and cold room business to the fire.

Mr Jibrin seems to worry less about his loss. He’s overwhelmed by the violent scene he witnessed.

“What I lost here is more than N20 million,” he said, praising God for saving his life. “I think what saved me and my boys was that we didn’t go close to the petrol. So there was no petrol on our bodies; we only scampered for safety.”

Even though the authorities counted 86 bodies, Mr Jibrin believes those who “died were more than 100.”

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and other responders told journalists on 18 January that 56 people had been hospitalised, although one of them later died.

However, the death toll keeps rising at the hospitals while more than 80 bodies were given a mass burial at Dikko Primary Healthcare Centre.

While the authorities said residents ignited the fire as they tried to scoop fuel, survivors and families of those killed in the incident blamed their acts on economic hardship caused by government policies.

Nigeria faces an economic crisis, forcing many to join street protests last year. Mr Tinubu’s economic reform policies have resulted in suffocating inflation, which surged to 34.19 per cent in June 2023. Food inflation exceeded 40 per cent, pushing many deeper into poverty, Human Rights Watch said in its 2025 World Report.

Not everybody involved was there to scoop

While many people who died that day were there to scoop fuel, some were just passing by.

Thirty-seven-year-old Amina Ismail, a school teacher, was one of the passersby. She was on her way to the market when the tanker exploded.

Her husband, Muhammed Kabir, told PREMIUM TIMES that his wife was only trying to surprise their eldest daughter, who turned 14 a day after the incident, with a visit to her school.

“Our daughter clocked 14 today,” Mr Kabir gazed at the daughter, sitting in a sombre mood among family members and sympathisers.

Mr Kabir, who works in Abuja, had sent his deceased wife some money to get a birthday present for their daughter, Fatima.

“She withdrew the money from a Point of Sale (POS) stand near where the tanker fell,” Mr Kabir recounted. “She was with Fatima, who we wanted to surprise. So her phone was off, and then she gave it to Fatima to bring it for charging. That was her end.”

Her body has not been found.

Mr Kabir and other family members have searched the hospitals where injured victims were taken. “But we couldn’t find her,” he said. “Many of the victims hospitalised were males, so we assume the females involved in the incident were all burnt by the fire.”

Like Ms Amina, 17-year-old Suwaiba Jubrin, an orphan, was also not there to scoop fuel. “She was going to the market when the thing killed her,” her grandmother, Hauwa Salisu, said amid tears.

Mrs Salisu said living to witness her granddaughter’s death was disheartening to her “after losing her mother, my daughter, some years ago.”

PREMIUM TIMES spoke to other families who admitted that their loved one went to the scene to scoop fuel, but they blamed that on hardship.

Last year, Hadiza Audu and her family fled banditry in their village in Bakori Local Government Area of Katsina State. Unfortunately, she died in the incident while trying to get some fuel.

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When PREMIUM TIMES visited them in their makeshift house in Sabon Kasuwa in Dikko, her husband still could not believe that his wife was gone forever.

“She made my food before going to the place. That is the last time I saw her,” he said, adding: “We haven’t found her body.”

Mr Bala’s extended family will not forget so quickly. They lost three members—Iko, Joseph, and Samuel—to the incident.

When PREMIUM TIMES visited the family, only Jumai, their elder sister, could speak. Others buried their heads in their hands, weeping profusely.

Ms Jumai believes God gives and takes lives. “We accept the will of God,” she said as tears gathered in her eyes.

Thirty-one-year-old Peter Ezekiel, a twin and father of one, also died in the incident. His twin brother, Patrick, told PREMIUM TIMES that his “jobless” brother only went there to get some fuel so he could sell them and make some money.

“I would have been dead by now if I was around that day,” Mr Patrick said, adding he went to the scene after the incident and could recognise his burnt twin brother.

Mr Peter, the deceased, died alongside his friend, Gideon Philip.