What a weekend

CALL it a weekend of disaster and you will not be wrong. Beginning from Thursday, Nigeria, the world’s largest black nation has been engulfed in a series of air and land tragedies that have claimed about 267 lives and destroyed property worth billions of Naira.

Emergency workers in Nigeria fought fires and searched for corpses through the night in a neighborhood that an aging American-built airliner plowed into, killing all 153 on board. Rescue officials said today they fear many people may have perished on the ground too.

A Nigeria Red Cross report said that 48 bodies had been recovered so far, with more being dug out from the rubble.

The pilots reported engine trouble before the crash. Two years ago, the same Boeing MD-83 had loss of engine power due to a bird strike, according to an aviation database.

On a clear Sunday afternoon, the Dana Air jetliner crashed into businesses and crowded apartment buildings near Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport, the worst air disaster in Nigeria in nearly two decades.

“The fear is that since it happened in a residential area, there may have been many people killed,” said Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency.

The cause of the crash remained unclear. The pilots radioed to the Lagos control tower just before the crash, reporting engine trouble, a military official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to journalists. Rescue workers searched for the aircraft’s black box recorders where flight data is stored, said Harold Demuren, the director-general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.

Yesterday’s Dana Airlines commercial aircraft crash at Iju, Lagos, which claimed about 170 lives, one of the worst air crashes in Nigeria’s history, caps a weekend of tragedies, which began on Thursday.

Although peace has become a scarce commodity in many northern cities of the country on account bombing activities in recent times, the southwestern part, including Lagos, the economic nerve-centre has had no respite since last Thursday.

In two unrelated accidents between Lagos and Ibadan, last Thursday, 10 persons were killed. At Ibafo along Lagos-Ibadan expressway, five persons were burnt in a multiple accident and explosions involving nine fuel tankers while a building under construction at New Covenant Church, Sagbe, Ojoo, Ibadan collapsed during a downpour and claimed five persons including two women.

On Saturday, another fuel tanker explosion, which claimed 24 vehicles rocked the ever-busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. The tragedy occurred at Danco Village in Obafemi Owode Local Council of Ogun State. The citizenry were still absorbing the effects of the  tanker explosions when the news of the death of 30 people in Assakyo, headquarters of Lafia Local Council Development Area of Nasarawa State broke. They were killed following renewed violence between Alago and Beron communities. And on the same day, an accident in Funtua, Katsina State, claimed three persons and injured 17others.

Still thirsty for blood, the agents of death remained on prowl yesterday. First,  nine people were killed and 40 others injured when a suicide bomber in a Honda Civic, who attempted  to force his way into the iron barricade at the entrance of Living Faith Church, Ungwan Angas, Yelwa, Bauchi State but was denied entry detonated his explosives at the barrier opposite the church.

Even in Ghana, the disaster continued when Allied Airplane Cargo Boeing 727 aircraft crash landed, hit a van and killed 10 persons. And then the chilling Iju disaster, which occurred at about 3 p.m Aside killing the 154 persons on board, the crash also killed about 16 persons ground.

On its destruction path, the plane destroyed two  three-storey buildings before burying itself inside a warehouse. Also destroyed was an uncompleted building and a church building. Charred remains of the dead littered the scene as rescue workers battled through the thick smoke of the burning aircraft and crowd to search for survivors.

Lack of gas masks, rubber gloves and the surging crowd impeded the efforts of rescue workers made up of soldiers, police, Lagos State Emergency Aganecy (LASEMA), the Nigerian Red Cross and men of the Fire Service. So far only a man, a nursing mother, her baby and the grandmother were rescued from one of the collapsed buildings. Efforts to speak with the survivors were thwarted by doctors administering first aid on them and the area has been cordoned off by security agents.