OHAJI-EGBEMA, Nigeria
Remains of more than 100
workers and traders who died after an illegal refinery exploded in southeast
Nigeria were buried on Tuesday in an official ceremony after an incident that
shocked the region.GRAPHIC CONTENT - Volunteers collect charred bodies of victims of an illegal refinery explosion for a funeral in Imo, southeastern Nigeria, Tuesday, April 26, 2022.
Nigeria’s National Emergency
Management Agency said at least 110 people had died in Friday’s explosion
though officials believe the casualty figure could be higher.
“As the days go by, most
people who think their siblings travelled will now realize maybe they are
victims of this (explosion),” said Marcel Amadioha, chairman of the
Ohaji-Egbema local government area where the illegal refinery operated.
Nigeria is Africa’s largest
producer of crude oil and illegal refineries and oil bunkering activities have
plagued the continent’s most populous nation for years.
Illegal refineries are “very
widespread” in the West African nation mainly as a result of “the collapse of
the system (with) poor security system and the lack of care for the pipelines,”
said Nnimo Bassey, director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation environmental
group in Nigeria.
“They were so loose that the
illegal bunkers will come here in their numbers without any kind of threat, not
feeling like the police or security agencies will come,” the council chairman
said of the security agencies. “There are some of them who are collaborators,
who are sabotaging the efforts of the real ones trying to make sure this
illegal bunkering stops.”
Nigeria’s police and military
did not immediately respond to an inquiry for comments.
Tuesday’s event was a hurried
but solemn burial that had been delayed for four days since the explosion on
Friday as local authorities made efforts to arrange for vital equipment such as
excavators.
Many of the victims’ bodies
had been carried away and buried by families with just about 50 left at the
refinery site for Tuesday’s mass burial, according to Bright Onyenwoke, a youth
leader. “My heart bleeds,” he told The Associated Press.
Nigerian President Muhammadu
Buhari has ordered the nation’s security forces “to intensify the clampdown” on
such facilities being operated illegally in many parts of southern Nigeria, but
there are concerns it would be a difficult task given insecurity in the area
and a high rate of poverty.
In Imo state, many of those who worked at the refinery site did so “out of frustration,” according to youth leader Onyenwoke, who said the communities in the area are being marginalized despite having dozens of oil wells.
“There is no good road, no
good water, no electricity,” he said, “so, the means of survival here is hard,”
adding that sometimes taking part in illegal businesses becomes preferable.
Oramaru Kwintus with Nigeria’s
disaster management agency said that authorities will “embark on more
sensitization of the youths on the dangers of these dangerous activities.” -
AP
No comments:
Post a Comment