Yinjua – Reuters
More than 100 people were killed in an explosion at an illegal oil refinery on Nigeria’s border on Sunday, the day after Sunday’s explosions, and burnt bodies scattered between burnt palm trees and wrecked cars and pickup trucks. Rivers and emo states.
While the smoke billowed in some places despite last night’s rain, the victims’ shoes, bags and clothes were strewn on the ground in black with oil.
“There are a lot of dead people here. I urge the government to look into the matter,” said Uchi Voke, a business bike driver at the scene of the blast.
The Nigerian Red Cross was at the scene to assess the eruption, which destroyed part of the Abyssinian forest bordering the Ohaji Ikbima local government area on the border with the reverse state of Emo.
Nigerian President Mohammed Buhari has said in a statement that he will intensify crackdowns on illegal oil refineries after describing them as “catastrophic” and “national catastrophes”.
Unemployment and poverty in the Niger Delta have turned illicit crude oil refining into a lucrative business with deadly consequences.
Crude oil is extracted from pipelines owned by large oil companies and refined into products in temporary tanks.
This dangerous activity leads to many bloody accidents and pollutes an area already affected by oil spills in agricultural lands, streams and lakes.
The Center for Environment and Youth Protection said several vehicles were burned in the explosion while waiting to buy illegal fuel.
“More than 100 people were killed in a fire at an illegal food distribution site,” said Goodluck Opiah, the state commissioner for petroleum resources.
And setting up a warehouse in a border area is an attempt to escape the state’s recent repression of illegal purification in an attempt to control bad air pollution.
An explosion and fire at another illegal refinery in Rivers State in October killed at least 25 people, including some children.
Local authorities launched a campaign in February to put an end to stolen crude oil refining, but it was unsuccessful.
Government officials estimate that pipeline extraction or sabotage will cause Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer and exporter, to lose an average of 200,000 barrels of oil per day, or more than 10 percent of production.
This forces oil companies to continue to declare force wages on oil and gas exports.
