Five people were killed in an explosion that shook a business in Omoku, Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni Local Government Area, which held illegally refined petroleum products.
The news was reported on Saturday by the Youth and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria).
According to Dr. Fyneface Fyneface, Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, the explosion caused a fire that destroyed the structure.
He said: “The inferno is said to have occurred in a house where people purchased and stored illegally refined petroleum products including condensate for resale in the area.”
According to Fyneface, he was informed of the development by members of the Advocacy Centre young volunteers network, which is run by the One Million young Volunteers Network of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters in the Niger Delta in ONELGA.
He said that five people—four women and one man—were completely burned when the event happened on Saturday at around 11 a.m.
He demanded that the matter be looked into and cautioned locals and young people against becoming involved in pipeline vandalism, stealing crude oil, operating artisanal refineries, or dealing in illicitly refined petroleum products, including storing them in their homes.
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Additionally, Fyneface reiterated his demand that the Federal Government legalise artisanal refineries in the Niger Delta by establishing modular refineries for artisanal refiners in the Delta region and the Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative (PACORDI), which was proposed on July 27, 2020.
