Nigeria: Illegal Oil Refinery Explodes, Kills 110 People

An explosion at an illegal oil refinery in southern Nigeria last week killed 110 people, Nigeria’s Vanguard newspaper reported on Wednesday.

“Villagers from Abaezi community in Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area and neighbouring towns in Imo State watched in pains, agony as 50 out of over the 110 victims were buried after last Friday’s explosion at the illegal refinery in Abaezi community [sic],” Vanguard reported on April 27.

The Lagos-based newspaper referred to victims of an explosion that took place on April 23 at a petroleum refining station in Abaezi village located on the border separating Nigeria’s Rivers and Imo states. While the exact cause of the explosion remains unknown, the blast at Abaezi’s oil refinery on Saturday was so powerful that it, along with related fires, destroyed an entire section of a surrounding forest.

Vanguard interviewed a witness of the blast named Fyneface Dumnamene on April 23 who relayed horrific details of the disaster.

“[T]he explosion burnt several vehicles that were waiting to buy the illegal products,” he recalled.

“Several bodies burnt beyond recognition lay on the ground while others who may have attempted running for safety are seen hanging on some trees branches [sic],” the witness revealed.

A number of people operated the doomed oil processing depot in Abaezi village illegally prior to its explosion on April 23, according to statements made by Imo state governor Hope Uzodimma on April 25.

“We have warned people severally to stop these illegal oil bunkering and I think this will serve as a lesson to others venturing into this business [sic],” Gov. Uzodimma told reporters on Monday as quoted by Vanguard.

The newspaper revealed at the time that several people in charge of the illegal oil refinery that exploded on April 23 were evading Nigerian police after Gov. Uzodimma publicly announced an arrest warrant for the plant’s owner, a man named Okenze Onyewoke.

Nigeria is Africa’s largest crude oil producer, though the nation has long struggled to properly refine and sell its naturally abundant petroleum stores.

“Unemployment and poverty in the oil producing Niger Delta have made illegal refining attractive, but with often deadly consequences. Crude oil is tapped from a web of pipelines owned by major oil companies and refined in makeshift tanks,” Reuters noted on April 25.

Nigeria’s federal government has so severely mismanaged the nation’s naturally occurring petroleum sources that it routinely fails to provide its citizens with sufficient oil and gas supplies.

This failure most recently led to widespread fuel shortages across Nigeria in mid-March. Nigeria’s recent fuel shortage seems especially noteworthy given the country is a member of OPEC, or the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.