Five persons have been reportedly killed from an explosion at an illegal petroleum storage site in Rivers State.
The incident it was gathered occured in a house where people
purchased and store illegally refined petroleum products including condensate for resale in Omoku, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The explosion was confirmed by an environmental watch group, The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria).
Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, Dr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface in a statement said: “Members of the Advocacy Centre youth volunteers network under the auspices of the One Million Youth Volunteers Network of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters in the Niger Delta in ONELGA reported that the incident occurred on Saturday, April 26 by about 11:00am, killing five persons, four females and one male, all burnt beyond recognition”.
While calling for thorough investigation into the incident, Fyneface warned residents and youths against involvement in pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refining and trading in illegally refined petroleum products including home storage to avoid reoccurrence of such ugly incidents.
The group further used the opportunity to reiterate its call on the federal government to legalise artisanal refineries in the Niger Delta through the establishment of its July 27, 2020 proposed Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative (PACORDI) or Modular Refineries for artisanal Refiners in the Niger Delta region to mitigate incidents of such nature.
