Nigeria conducts mass burial for victims of illegal refinery explosion
By Tife Owolabi
IMO STATE, Nigeria (Reuters) – Dozens of charred our bodies had been buried in mass graves on Tuesday in Nigeria’s Imo state because the stench of decomposing flesh hung within the air after greater than 100 folks had been killed throughout a weekend explosion at an unlawful oil refinery.
A bunch of males, some naked chested and with out sneakers, used shovels to dig three graves on the website of the explosion, a swampy open area surrounded by burnt out vehicles and palm bushes.
Earlier than the burial, two native well being officers fumigated the positioning and surrounding space.
With solely plastic and flip flops masking their ft, males used makeshift stretchers to dump our bodies in shallow graves, which shortly stuffed with water. No physique baggage had been used.
“Due to the explosion right here the corpses can’t be recognized. His excellency, the governor mandated us to ensure that we should always bury these that can not be recognized by their kinfolk,” mentioned Marcel Amadioha, a boss of the Ohaji-Egbema native authorities space of Imo state.
Amadioha mentioned some kinfolk had managed to assert some our bodies and took them for burial however greater than 50 had been unclaimed.
Ezechukwe Eze, a neighborhood chief, poured gin on the bottom, saying this was meant to appease gods of the land and stop future disasters.
Following the explosion, the worst since October, President Muhammadu Buhari mentioned he would intensify the clampdown on unlawful refineries, one thing earlier governments have finished with little success.
Unemployment and poverty within the oil producing Niger Delta means 1000’s of Nigerians proceed to see unlawful refining as a method of financial survival, however usually with lethal penalties. Crude oil is tapped from an online of pipelines owned by main oil corporations and refined in makeshift tanks.
The method has led to deadly accidents and polluted a area already blighted by oil spills in farmland, creeks and lagoons for many years.
Authorities officers estimate that Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer and exporter, loses a median of 200,000 barrels of oil per day, greater than 10% of manufacturing, to theft or vandalised of pipelines.
(Writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Modifying by Sandra Maler)
