Petrol tanker falls, spills content on major road leading to Lagos airport -

Disaster was on Saturday averted at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos after a tanker conveying Premium Motor Spirit lost balance and spilled its contents on the major road leading to the nation’s busiest airport.

It was gathered that the incident which occurred about 10a.m caused heavy vehicular traffic around the airport and its environs for several hours.

A reliable source from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Fire Service Department, that the disaster was averted by the prompt action taken by both FAAN fire fighters and the Lagos State Fire Fighters.

He said: “The truck lost balance and spilled its content very close to the Airport Garage which is the road leading to the airport from Ikeja.

“Fire fighters responded quickly and diluted the contents with a ” foam blanket”, to prevent any fire outbreak.

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“Also, some officers were quickly deployed to the nearby FAAN residential quarters to monitor the situation.”

Joseph Alabi, spokesperson for the Lagos Airport Police Command, who also confirmed the incident, commended the roles played by all agencies to avert the disaster.

Alabi said following the incident, the Police from Area F Command and traffic officials embarked on rerouting vehicles coming and going into the airport to ease the traffic gridlock.

He said vehicles coming from Ikeja were directed to use the newly constructed Airport Road via Oshodi while those exiting were diverted to the MMA1 to link up with the Agege Motor Road via National.

Efforts were being made to tow the fallen truck away as at the time of filing this report.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.