Daily Sun gathered that the tanker driver lost control of the vehicle when he was trying to maneuver a bend in the road.

Tony John, Port Harcourt

Property worth billions of naira was lost yesterday as a tanker loaded with petroleum product rammed into a flower garden and exploded in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. No casualty was recorded.

The fire destroyed a new generation church, a hotel, four shops and a flower garden along G.U. Ake Road, Eliozu, in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state.

Daily Sun gathered that the tanker driver lost control of the vehicle when he was trying to maneuver a bend in the road. The tanker rammed into the garden and burst into flames.

Meanwhile, the general overseer of the affected church, Bunmi Grace, noted that the incident happened around 6am, adding that none of the victims was able to save any of their belongings.

Grace said: “When the tanker fell and fire started, the electricity transformer closeby caught fire, exploded and the fire spread the more. Before firefighters came, the thing had gone far.

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“The incident will affect our service, but we must gather to worship God. What was destroyed here was over N300 million because we did not remove anything here.

“I was in the house when I received a call that my church was on fire. I got a vision of fire incident, and we organised prayers and fasting.

We finished prayers yesterday, and this morning, this thing happened”.

Also, Amaka Ugu, one of the shop owners, disclosed that this was the third time a tanker has toppled at that spot and called on government to take prompt action to avert a recurrence. Meanwhile, the commissioner of works, Rivers State, Dum Dekor, has described the incident as sad and pathetic, adding that the accident was as a result of human error.