Barely two weeks after Chiedozie and Joan Okoye tied the knot in Lagos, their love story came to a tragic, untimely end. A devastating gas tanker explosion near Otedola Bridge snatched them from their families. Now, their loved ones are left drowning in grief and grappling with the unbearable weight of a loss so profound that no amount of words could heal, writes VICTOR AYENI
It was a bright Tuesday, March 11—another typical day on the ever-busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Nothing about it hinted at the tragedy that was about to unfold, a catastrophe that would claim lives and shatter families in an instant.
Among the unsuspecting motorists navigating the chaotic evening traffic were Chiedozie Okoye and his wife, Joan, newlyweds still basking in the joy of their union. Their journey home should have been just another routine drive, but fate had other plans.
A 30-tonne tanker, laden with automotive gas oil, rumbled towards a nearby gas station to offload its volatile cargo. But as it approached the uphill stretch near Magodo Phase II Estate, right by the notorious Otedola Bridge, disaster struck. The brakes failed.
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What followed was the kind of nightmare only seen in horror films. The massive truck, now an unstoppable force of destruction, hurtled forward with deadly momentum.
According to an eyewitness who simply gave his name as Michael, as it careened downhill, it slammed into a mini-bus that had stopped to discharge passengers. The bus conductor, sensing impending doom, screamed for everyone to run.
But the warning came too late.
“It took about three minutes before the fire started. As soon as the gas exploded, people began to run, and there was chaos everywhere. Some managed to escape before the flames erupted.
“The tanker landed on a car, and there were people inside it. They were engulfed in the fire, their screams of ‘Help me! Help me!’ piercing the air, but no one could save them,” Michael recounted.
Although official reports put the death toll at four, other eyewitnesses at the scene claimed that more than seven people lost their lives in the explosion.
Many others were reportedly injured, and over 18 vehicles were destroyed in the inferno, which also ravaged several properties in the area.
A black Tuesday
For the Okoye family and their loved ones, March 11 will forever be a dark Tuesday, one etched in sorrow and marked by the tragic loss of a couple whose dreams were cut short barely two weeks after their wedding.
“Dozie juat resumed work that Tuesday after his wedding. His wife left her father’s house around 4 pm to meet him so he could pick her up on his way back from work. That was the last anyone heard from them,” a source close to the family revealed.
Frontline Reporters gathered that as news of the gas explosion spread on social media, family and friends desperately tried to reach Chiedozie and Joan, but both their lines were unreachable.
At first, they feared the couple had been kidnapped. But as their silence stretched into hours, an ominous thought crept in, leading them to the one place they had dreaded—the scene of the accident.
Anxious and desperate, the family searched for the couple at the Burns Centre in Gbagada, where many of the surviving victims were receiving treatment, but they found no trace of them.
Fearing the worst, their search took them to Yaba Mortuary, where, on Wednesday evening, their worst nightmare was confirmed; the charred remains of Chiedozie and Joan were found.
“The only means of identification was their vehicle’s registration number, which was found among the burnt cars. That was how the devastated search team knew they had perished in the inferno,” a Facebook user, Icewater Arucha, wrote.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Chiedozie was an Executive Assistant at the Ladipo Oluwole branch of Zenith Bank Plc, a position he held since April 2016.
“Professional banker with over six years of experience in cash handling, funds transfer (both local and offshore), government remittances, customer service, and marketing. Highly organised and always willing to take on new tasks,” his bio read.
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2025-03-28