Explosion in Rivers State Claims Five Lives

An explosion at a residential home in Rivers State’s Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area (ONELGA) killed at least five people.
On Saturday, April 26, the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) reported an explosion and fire.
In a statement made on Saturday, the Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, Dr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, said, “The incident occurred at around 11 a.m., claiming the lives of five persons—four females and one male—who were burnt beyond recognition.”

Investigate and exercise caution.
Fyneface requested authorities to thoroughly examine the event and warned residents and youngsters against pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refining, and dealing in illegally refined petroleum products.
His words were: “We warn residents against home storage of illegal petroleum products to avoid ugly incidents of this nature.”

Fyneface also renewed demands on the Federal Government to legalise artisanal refineries in the Niger Delta through the proposed Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative (PACORDI) or Modular Refineries for Artisanal Refiners to help mitigate such disasters.

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Police confirm an incident.
Grace Iringe-Koko, Public Relations Officer for the Rivers State Police Command, verified the explosion.

Iringe-Koko told Vanguard, “It was a condensate kerosene product that was held for sale. Someone brought a lit burner near the location where the product was stored to cook Indomie, which started the fire.”

She stated that four people had been verified dead as a result of the explosion and assured that “the police will investigate the matter.”