An early morning explosion at an illegal crude oil bunkering site in Rumuekpe Community in Emuoha Local Government Area of Rivers State has claimed the lives of dozens of people.
Sources said that the victims are mostly people from the community who had gone to the tapping point of the Trans Niger Delta Pipeline (TNP) which passes through the community.
The sources disclosed that the explosion occured around 2a.m. Friday morning, and that it made rescue efforts difficult in Rumuekpe community, which has one of the deadliest and longest chieftaincy tussle which led to bloodletting.
A group, the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) through its Crude Oil Spill Alert System (COSAS), said that an initial fire outbreak from a bus conveying crude oil to a refining site led to the explosion.
The executive director of YEAC, Fyneface Dunamene Fyneface, added that some of the victims included women and men that “were burnt beyond recognition with many other vehicles and tricycles burnt to ashes at the tapping point said to be on the Trans Niger Delta Pipeline (TNP) that passed through the community.”
Fyneface, who campaigns against crude oil theft, environmental pollution and advocates for modular refining, added that some parked buses that had also loaded crude oil and were about to move got consumed by the explosion.
