Skip to main content

OVER 20 PEOPLE DIE FROM FIRE EXPLOSION AT AN ILLEGAL OIL REFINERY IN BAYELSA


20 people  at least have reportedly been killed at an illegal refinery at Kolo Creek in the Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State and many others were said to have suffered varying degrees of buruns due to the explosion

It was alleged that te JTF, Operation Delta Safe, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, security outfits directly in charge of checking illegal bunkering, pipeline vandalism and illegal refineries, have had knowledge of the camp but allegedly failed to stop its operation ever since.

According to reports, tragedy struck in the camp near the creeks of Ebelebiri and Otuogwe when it exploded on December 5, 2017 and went up in flames. Community sources claimed that an attempt by a woman in the camp to cook noodles, using a stove, sparked the fire that caused the havoc.  

An eyewitness described it as tragic, unspeakable and avoidable.  “When we got there, I almost vomited. I saw charred remains of people. They were burnt beyond recognition. In some cases, you could only see heads and feet of victims. Despite the burnt bodies, we still met people illegally cooking crude oil there. We thought that security agencies, especially the military, would have taken over the place, but we didn’t meet any security operatives. We only met people who were still refining illegally bunkered crude oil. It was that bad and terrible.”  

It was gathered that the camp, allegedly owned by a powerful cartel, had been in operation for a long time. Investigation, however, revealed that the state police command had earlier appealed to security agencies in charge of oil theft, especially the NSCDC and the JTF, to clamp down on the site and arrest the operators.  A police source told newsmen that the Commissioner of Police uncovered the existence of the camp through intelligence gathering and warned of dire consequences.

The source said the commissioner had, in September, allegedly dispatched a letter to security commanders in charge of oil theft, appealing to them to treat the matter with urgency.  He quoted some parts of the letter as saying, “Information gathered revealed that the presence of ongoing illegal refining of petroleum products such as kerosene, diesel at Ebelebiri and Otuogwe, two communities in the Ogbia LGA of Bayelsa State, under the Kolo jurisdiction.  “The activities of these criminals constitute economic sabotage to the nation as well as endangering lives and properties as explosion on this pipeline may lead to disaster”. He said

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

we can now join APC in ONELGA without being killed- Defectors

PORT HARCOURT — All Progressives Congress, APC, participants in Ogba Ndoni Egbema local government area, ONELGA, Rivers state, have expressed comfort that they can now publicly claim membership of the party without fear of being focused or killed by way of partisan competitors. speakme at a gathering in Omoku, ONELGA headquarters, wherein the party chieftain and leader chief medical Director  university of Port Harcourt teaching health facility, Prof Henry Ugbomah, admitted one hundred new contributors, including defectors from the Peoples Democratic party, PDP, to the APC,  Ugbomah cited that common politically stimulated killings earlier than and after the 2015 widespread election completed by means of the fear  of now eliminated Johnson Igwedibia, a.k.a. Don Waney, in large part targeted APC individuals and consequently deterred them from vote casting for the party in the course of elections. He stated: “The bloodsuckers who stored us in jail are no longer there...
Post a Comment
Read more

MTN XtraCash: You can borrow real cash from MTN now

Are you broke or probably stranded? Do you need cash urgently and can afford to borrow quick cash? MTN has released a new feature called  MTN XtraCash  which will allow you borrow real money and some time to payback. MTN aleeady has the feature that allows you borrow airtime but this new feature is new and  better than it. There are some circumstances you might find your self that you are forced to borrow real money and therefore, MTN has finally provided you with the opportunity to take care of that urgent financial need. So, this new Value Added Service called MTN XtraCash that has been added to MTN online scheme for customers to borrow cash, is based on eligibility in order to restrict some bad users and actors from misusing the service. However, the eligibility isn’t strict; just be an active MTN user and you are done. How Do I apply for MTN XtraCash services ? You can borrow from N5,000 to N10,000 based on eligibility. Then, dial  *606#  and ...
Post a Comment
Read more