Explosion kills more than 12 persons at crude oil tapping point in Rivers
BY AMAKA AGBU
More than 12 people are now feared burnt to death in an explosion at a crude oil tapping point in Rumuekpe Community, Emuohua Local Government Area of Rivers State, early hours of Friday. Five vehicles, four Keke NAPEPs, and one motorcycle were all burnt to ashes in the inferno.
The alarm was first raised by the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) through its Crude Oil Spill Alert System (COSAS) and members of its “One Million Youth Volunteers Network of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters in the Niger Delta”.
The explosion was said to have occurred around 2am Friday, March 3, 2023, when one of the buses which was loaded with crude oil to drive to another area where the refining would take place in an artisanal refineries exploded as the engine was turned on.
The explosion and fire had left 12 persons, including women, burnt beyond recognition with many other vehicles and tricycles burnt to ashes at the tapping point on the Trans Niger Delta Pipeline (TNP) that passed through the community.
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The Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, Mr Fyneface Dumnamene, who raised the alarm in a press statement he circulated in Port Harcourt said he had been campaigning against crude oil theft, environmental pollution, as well as leading the advocacy for the provision of alternative livelihood opportunities for artisanal refiners in the Niger Delta for the past 12 years through the promotion of Modular Refineries promised by the Federal Government.
Mr. Dumnamene said he had proposed the establishment of “Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative (PACORDI)” as well as the establishment of “Network Against Organized Crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea (NAOCINAG”.
He said he was called up Friday morning and informed of that latest explosion and death of many pipeline vandals, adding that all those who were at the exact tapping point in the “pit” got killed while some of those who had loaded the crude and waiting to load including women had been killed by the explosion.
The Executive Director said: “Advocacy Centre can confirm from the eyewitness information and other sources that confirmed the incident at the community that men of the Nigeria Arm area already at the scene of the incident, with the Police said to be on the way to the scene, making it difficult for photographs and videos to be taken.”
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Police Command, through its image maker, SP Grace Iringe-Koko, has confirmed the incident, putting the death rate at 12. The Command said that the victims were yet to be identified.
The police spokesman said: “Preliminary investigation by the Police Command indicates that the victims were scooping crude product when the site caught fire. So far, about 12 persons are believed to have been burnt to death. The identities of the victims are still unknown.”
Following the explosion, the Rivers State Commissioner of Police had again admonished members of the public to stay away from illegal oil bunkering and to avail themselves of the following hotlines to report any incident or development they believed had the potential to lead to crime or breakdown of law and order: 08032003514, 08098880134.
