Abuja, Nigeria — More than 100 people were killed overnight in an explosion at an illegal oil refining depot on the border of Nigeria’s Rivers and Imo states, a local government official and an environmental group said on Saturday.
“The fire outbreak occurred at an illegal bunkering site and it affected over 100 people who were burnt beyond recognition,” the state commissioner for petroleum resources, Goodluck Opiah, said.
The bunkering site was in the Ohaji-Egbema local government area of Imo state in the Abaezi forest that straddles the border of the two states.
Unemployment and poverty in the oil-producing Niger Delta have made illegal crude refining an attractive business but with deadly consequences. Crude oil is tapped from a web of pipelines owned by major oil companies and refined into products in makeshift tanks.
The hazardous process has led to many fatal accidents and has polluted a region already blighted by oil spills in farmland, creeks and lagoons.
The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre said several vehicles that were in a queue to buy illegal fuel were burnt in the explosion.
The border location is a reaction to a recent crackdown by the Rivers state governor on illegal refining in an effort to reduce worsening air pollution.
“The Rivers state governor has made a push recently to stamp out illegal refining in Rivers so it has to move to the fringes and neighbouring states. In the last month or two, there were several raids and some security agents involved were tackled,” Ledum Mitee, former president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), said.
At least 25 people, including some children, were killed in an explosion and fire at another illegal refinery in Rivers state in October.
In February, local authorities said they had started a crackdown to try put a stop to the refining of stolen crude, but with little apparent success.
Government officials estimate that Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer and exporter, loses an average of 200,000 barrels of oil a day – more than 10% of production – to those tapping or vandalising pipelines.
Officials in southern Nigeria are investigating a site where more than 100 people have been reported killed following a powerful oil explosion.
The Imo state commissioner for information, Declan Emelumba, said officials are probing Friday’s fire and explosion at an illegal oil bunkering site, or ‘kpofire’ in the Egbema local government area. The boundary is between Imo state and the oil-rich Rivers state.
He said officials are also investigating the extent of deaths, injuries and damages. Many of those killed are burned beyond recognition. Most of them were workers at the illegal refinery.
On Sunday, emergency teams continued their response in the affected area.
The explosion, which local officials say is the deadliest in years, is raising concerns. Energy expert Odion Omonfoman said the high rate of poverty and deprivation in the region is the reason many locals are endangering their lives.
“If you have a fuel station in a community, that community must have electricity, must have some form of energy source for cooking,” he said. “Until you start addressing the basic needs of people… and you’d be shocked …meeting their basic needs can make them go to this extreme length.”
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari described the incident as a “catastrophe and a national disaster.”
In a statement Sunday, Buhari offered his condolences to the families of the victims and said those responsible for the explosions must be caught and brought to justice.
Authorities are looking for the operator of the refinery.
Oil theft and pipeline vandalism have been reported in Nigeria for decades. Authorities say the country loses 150,000 barrels a day or up to $4 billion a year to these activities.
In January, authorities renewed a crackdown on illegal refineries that operated by tapping crude oil from pipelines owned by oil companies. Many suspects were arrested, and many sites shut down.
Samuel Nwanosike, a local government head in Ikwerre – one of the areas affected by the kpofire activities in the Rivers state, said it’s criminality that needs to be rooted out..
“Yes, lack of jobs is part of it but it’s not an avenue for you to go into criminality,” he said. “With the activities that have taken the lives of over 100 people like you’ve seen in Egbema is clearly a criminal activity and must be declared as such. In Ikwerre local government as we speak, all 285 illegal refinery spots that have been identified have been destroyed.”
Years of exploration activities by oil companies and illegal oil operators have tainted the environment in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, making farming and fishing nearly impossible.
Authorities have been trying to clean up hydrocarbons but the local chief in the Rivers state, Ibiosiya Sukubo, told VOA in January that the government was not doing enough.
“The government is only interested in the proceeds of the oil and gas, but they’re not interested in the people,” Sukubo said.
Experts say unless authorities and communities work together, illegal refineries will continue to put many more lives in danger.
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