প্রকাশ: 24/04/2022
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 per day of oil -
more than 10% of production - to those tapping or vandalising pipelines.
That has forced oil companies to regularly declare force
majeure on oil and gas exports. - Reuters
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