The decomposed body of a 25-year-old-man, Zayyanu Abubakar, has been evacuated from inside a petrol tanker compartment where he suffocated and died since Friday, October 4, while stealing petrol.
Reports say the deceased fell inside the tank of the vehicle with plate number, XA 640 TBW, parked along Sokoto Western bye-pass and loaded with 33,000 litres of petrol.
The deceased was alleged to have stolen 20 litres from the fuel compartment and had returned for more when he fell inside the tank.
It took the combined efforts of the officers of the state fire service, the police from Kwanni Division, Sokoto, and some good Samaritans, four hours to bring out the decomposed body.
A relative of the deceased, Yahaya Mohammed, said: “He told his siblings about his earlier successful exploits and they warned him against going back into the vehicle.
“He had told them that he nearly suffocated in the first attempt, but unknown to them, he went back, got trapped and died.”
A fire serviceman, Zayyanu Jelani said: “We were here since around 8a.m., when we were alerted about the ugly development.
“This is the first time we are recording this type of unfortunate incident in Sokoto apart from fire incidents on fuel tankers.”
Confirming the incident, spokesman of the state police command, DSP Al-Mustapha Sani, said the police would thoroughly investigate the incident.
The remains of the deceased had since been deposited at the morgue of Uthmanu Danfodio University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto.
