A Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) tanker explosion at Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, opposite Sheraton Hotels and Towers, Ikeja, Lagos on Thursday night has left no fewer than 13 persons with various degrees of injuries and about 25 cars destroyed.

The tanker conveying LPG exploded and caught fire at about 10.32 pm on Thursday, throwing the environment into a panic.

Ln247 learnt that all the guests at Sheraton have been evacuated and the incident is causing heavy traffic in the Ikeja GRA axis.

Ibrahim Farinloye, acting zonal coordinator, South-West Zonal Office of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ikeja on Friday that the explosion was alleged to have been caused by leakage while the LPG tanker was in motion.

“The resulting fire travelled with the wind to the premises of Ogun State Property Investment Company (OPIC) Plaza besides Sheraton Hotels, which houses different commercial outfits including a Chinese Restaurant,” Farinloye said.

He said the fire was extinguished at about 12.30 am after concerted efforts of five fire trucks from the Lagos State Fire Service and two trucks from the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency Response Unit.

President Muhammadu Buhari on an official visit to the Armed Forces and other security agencies in Operation Hadin Kai, at the Maimalari Cantonment in Maiduguri, Borno State, assured that the Federal Government will provide more arms and ammunition for the military in the fight against Boko Haram terrorists in the northeast.

President Buhari at the official visit on Thursday affirmed that the government will sustain its investment in the Armed Forces. He further promised better welfare for the military personnel in the battlefield with the terrorists, including ‘insurance’ cover for families of demised soldiers in the battle.

The President added that the nation will remain indebted to the patriotic commitment of personnel of the Armed Forces and security agencies, to the defence of the fatherland against insurgency and criminality.

He acknowledged all the security personnel who made the supreme sacrifice in ensuring that Nigeria remains one indivisible and secure entity.

President Buhari promised: “This administration will spare no effort or resources to ensure that the widows and children of our fallen heroes who paid the supreme price in defence of our beloved country are well catered for.”

The President noted that several interventions by the federal government have led to the procurement and delivery of large consignments of critical combat enablers, including high calibre weapons and ammunition.

He assured, “Much more equipment will be procured for the Armed Forces to cater for both the short and long term requirements.”

President Buhari encouraged the Armed Forces and other security agencies that there is still a lot of work to be done to completely restore peace to the northeast, stem banditry in the northwest and North Central, as well as deal with other security challenges across the country.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has slammed President Muhammadu Buhari for weak prosecution of the anti-corruption war in the country. The opposition PDP berated the President for partisan sympathy, subtly shielding members of his political party, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), accused of corruption from proper investigation or prosecution.

The PDP in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbodiyan, emphasized that President Buhari’s fight against corruption in the country is a circus show in which looters are allegedly permitted to go untainted and free after fleecing public funds.

The PDP pointed out the case of a recent indictment of an unnamed female minister who was accused of purchasing a property worth $37.5 million who was not made to account for the alleged impropriety.

The party also challenged the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, “to without delay name the culprit and stop the famous process of easing out corrupt persons in President Buhari’s cabinet.”

The party urged the EFCC to be transparent in its operations.

The PDP further scolded President Buhari for the failure of the federal government to pay the 774,000 youths it recruited across 774 local government areas of the country under the Extended Special Public Works (ESPW).

Gunmen killed a police officer and kidnapped at least 80 students and five teachers from a school in the Nigerian state of Kebbi, police, residents and a teacher said.

The attack is the third mass kidnapping in three weeks in northwest Nigeria, which have authorities have attributed to armed bandits seeking ransom payments.

Usman Aliyu, a teacher at the school, said the gunmen took more than 80 students, most of them girls.

“They killed one of the (police officers), broke through the gate and went straight to the students’ classes,” he told Reuters.

Kebbi State police spokesman Nafiu Abubakar, said the gunmen killed one officer during an exchange and also shot a student, who was receiving medical treatment.

Police late on Thursday had not released the number of students missing, and a spokesman for the Kebbi state governor said they were conducting a tally of the missing.

The attack took place at a federal government college in the remote town of Birnin Yauri. Abubakar said security forces were searching a nearby forest for the abducted students and teachers.

Atiku Aboki, a resident who went to the school shortly after the gunfire stopped, said he saw a scene of panic and confusion as people searched for their children.

“When we got there we saw students crying, teachers crying, everyone is sympathising with people,” he said by telephone.

“Everyone was confused. Then my brother called me (to say) that his two children have not been seen and (we) don’t know if they are among the kidnapped.”

Bandits seeking ransom have kidnapped more than 800 Nigerian students from their schools since December in a series of raids. Some have been freed while others remain missing.

The raids in the northwestern region are separate from Islamist insurgencies centred on the northeast, where the Boko Haram militant group made global headlines in 2014 when it abducted more than 270 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok.