An explosion at an illegal oil refinery, April 24, killed at least 110 people, police and government officials said on Sunday. The blast occurred late on Friday at the facility, which lies between Rivers and Imo states, police confirmed.
Ifeanyi Nnaji of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) told a news agency that the death toll had risen from 80 as dozens of people “succumbed to their injuries.” The head of NEMA operations in the area said scores of people “with severe burns are still in the hospitals.” A mass burial was planned for Tuesday for those killed in the explosion, many of who “were burnt beyond recognition,” said Declan Emelumba, the Imo State Commissioner for Information.
Although the reason for the blast was unknown, it might have occurred during the process of refining crude oil, which involves boiling it by means of fire.
Idris Musa, director general of Nigeria’s National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency said the dead included those engaged in illegal oil refining and bunkering.
He said an investigation into the disaster was underway.
Reacting to the tragedy, President Muhammadu Buhari described it t as a “catastrophe and a national disaster.” The sponsors of the illegal refinery “must all be caught and made to face justice,” he added through a statement from his office. He also ordered the security and intelligence agencies to intensify the clampdown on illegal refineries in the country.
We regret what happened, particularly the huge death toll. But truth must be told, what happened was a tragedy in the making, only waiting to explode in our faces. Oil thieves, vandals and illegal refining operators siphon off some 200,000 barrels of crude oil daily from this country’s total daily output of two million barrels, according to industry operators. The oil is tapped from a web of pipelines owned by major oil companies and refined into products in makeshift tanks at the illegal refineries.
The refineries, scattered among the creeks, swamps and waters of the oil-rich Niger Delta, are not only prone to accidents but also cause spills and pollution. Pipeline fires are also commonplace, partly because of poor maintenance but also because of acts of vandalism by people who siphon off petrol and sell it on the black market. Recall that a pipeline blast in the southern town of Jesse in October 1998 killed more than 1,000 villagers, with the government blaming the disaster on such thieves, though local residents said the pipeline was not maintained properly.
We must admit, the government has been doing its best to stop illegal oil refining but apparently its best isn’t good enough. This illegality is a response to a crying national need for refined petroleum products. The daily domestic petrol consumption rate is estimated at over 70 million litres but the nation’s three refineries cannot meet this demand and refined fuel has to be imported.
What more, the effort to stop illegal oil refining is being hampered by powerful individuals, some of them even in government. For as long as these people remain untouched by the law because its arms are longer long, illegal oil refining will persist and also the danger of deadly explosions.
