•Stakeholders worry, call for urgent action

Stakeholders, groups and individuals have raised the alarm on imminent fire outbreak on the Niger Bridge as NUPENG members continue to abandon their tankers loaded with petroleum products on the Onitsha Head Bridge.

Amidst the growing fears, motorists and passersby have cried out, saying half of the expressway has been flooded with heavy duty vehicles with petroleum products, a development which they said is disturbing because the bridge has been reduced to a single lane.

Concerned stakeholders have cautioned that unless urgent steps are taken to call the union to order “Onitsha may be burnt down”.

The stakeholders have called on governments of the south east and relevant authorities to quickly intervene to save the situation.

The stakeholders further said the action of the union in the past four, has resulted in half of the Ontsha-Asaba Expressway being blocked. “For more than four weeks now, more than 100 (one hundred) tankers have been parked at the Onitsha bridge head blocking half of the expressway. Each fully loaded with PMS.” A stakeholder cried out in a post obtained by News Express.

“If any of these tankers should catch fire, one needs not to be told that the whole of Onitsha would be burnt down including our cherished Niger Bridge.” He said.

The stakeholder who prefers to be anonymous further warned: “If Onitsha burn, the NUPENG drivers have nothing to lose. The tankers they are driving is not their own. The PMS they are carrying is not their own. So they have absolutely nothing to lose.

“Please immediate action is needed urgently before it becomes too late even to cry out.”

He continued: “NUPENG has a problem with Imo state government. And they believe that the only way to express their anger is park fully loaded tankers at Onitsha bridge head. People have been sending SOS messages on radio programmes, facebook. But up till now nothing has been done.”

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