Scores Of People, Including Children, Burnt to Death in Petrol Pipeline Explosion in Rivers
Scores of people, including children, have been feared dead in explosions from a vandalized petrol pipeline on Christmas eve in Rivers state.
Many others sustained various degrees of burns, as hundreds of people broke the pipeline at Omu Oku and started siphoning petrol.
The actual number of those killed could not yet be ascertained.
Witnesses put the number of those killed at between 20 and 30.
Hospitals in the community and its environs were filled with victims of the explosions receiving medical treatment.
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Ukwuosah stated, Let me join in condemning the oil bunkering going on within ONELGa. And we are also calling on the security agencies to be up and doing and checkmate what is happening within that circle.
Secondly, we are also calling on the multinationals that own the oil facilities to overhaul their ageing facilities to forestall such incidents.
On his part, the Assistant Secretary of a vigilante group in the area, Onelga Security Peace Advisory Council, Emeka Agbabere, blamed the incident on illegal oil bunkering.
Agbabere said the vigilante group, the Community Development Committee and youths were directed by a monarch in the area to put a stop to oil bunkering activities there.
He however expressed dismay that repeated campaigns for youths to stop illegal bunkering have not yielded the result
He stated, We proclaimed that they must put a stop to it and this is the aftermath of it. When they busted the pipeline, fire engulfed immediately and 19 of them died instantly and about 12 in two different hospitals.
