Police trace Otedola bridge fire suspect to Kano

Lagos State Ministry of Justice said yesterday that the police had traced to Kano, the owner of a petrol tanker that exploded last June 27 on the Otedola bridge in Lagos, killing 12 people.

Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice Mr. Adeniji Kazeem (SAN) said there was, however, uncertainty as to whether the truck driver died in the fire.

Kazeem, who spoke in Ikeja, Lagos, at a parley with reporters, said the government had yet to fulfil its promise to prosecute the perpetrators of the disaster because the police had not availed it of the report of its investigation.

The Otedola bridge fire incident occurred at about 5pm on the Otedola bridge at the Lagos end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway when a tanker carrying 33,000 litres of petrol, fell, leaked and exploded, killing 12 people.

The inferno that ensued destroyed over 50 vehicles and caused gridlock for hours.

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Kazeem said: “We said we were going to prosecute the persons that caused that disaster. One of the challenges then was how to identify the perpetrators of that crime. We had said the driver and the owner needed to be identified.

“There were all kinds of stories out there, including whether the driver had died in the fire or not. The owners, as we understand, were traced by the police to Kano.

“The whole idea was that at the end of the day, they would conclude their investigation and get us the file here in the ministry. Unfortunately, we can’t do the investigation ourselves, so that we can begin prosecution.

“Unfortunately that process has not yet been concluded, or is not conclusive yet. Until we get that file, we cannot proceed with prosecution.”