Victims of the explosion in Abaranje, Ikotun axis of Lagos have demanded urgent medical remediation and compensation from the management of Airtel Networks Limited.
The victims asked the company to immediately fly them to the best burns centre in Britain or America and pay all medical and incidental fees.
The victims experienced severe burns resulting from the fire and explosion at the Base Transceiver Station (BTS Lag 767) at no. 15/19, of Airtel Network Limited at Abiodun Ibidapo Street, Asalu bus-stop, Abaranje, Ikotun, Lagos State on March 19, 2024.
They are also demanding an additional lump sum for compensation of N100 million each.
The victims, through their counsel, Olubunmi Odeniyi are asking Airtel Nigeria Limited to either fly them abroad for treatment or pay N150,000,000 monetary relief, compensation to cover pain and suffering; cost of medical assistance of their choice and discretion abroad including skin-grafting and plastic surgery as well as loss of/reduction of life prospects.
The surviving victims are Feranmi Nureni Oluwatoba, Saheed Adeleke, Franklin Obade and Saheed Raji, while a pet dog, named Bella, was also injured in the incident.
They experienced severe burns resulting from the fire and explosion at the base transceiver station.
One of them, Chidi Emmanuel, the fifth victim of the incident, however, succumbed to the injuries and passed away at the Gbagada General Hospital two days after being rushed to the hospital.
They made their demand in a letter dated April 2, 2024 written to the Managing Director and the CEO of Airtel Network Limited, titled: “Egregious Negligence of Your Company Causing Fire And Explosion And Resulting In Severe Life-Changing, Burns To Four Victims On Tuesday 19 March 2024.”
In the letter, they gave Airtel management seven days to respond to their request failure of which they would resort to litigation.
Odeniyi, who ascribed the incident to negligence at the BTS, added that a welder was welding while diesel was being discharged, which caused the explosion.
He added that the victims have been battling with their lives since the incident.
Meanwhile, the Director of Corporate Communications for the firm, Femi Adeniran was yet to respond to enquiries as he neither picked his calls nor responded to the message left on his whatsapp platform.
