On Thursday, twelveth July 2012, the people of Okogbe Community in the Ahoada-West Local Government Area of Rivers State went to work as soon as they noticed the petrol tanker fell spewing out fuel. Untrained hands scooping and siphoning petrol with reckless abandon.
Little did they know that calamity of monumental proportion was lurking around the corner. But there was money to be made and a thriving black market waiting to receive the product of their adventure.
Caution was thrown to the winds and the thrill of gain and easy money took over.
Boom, stampede, crises of anguish, all the ball of fire with too fast for the nimble, as over two hundred victims died from severe bums in their stride. Most of those who managed to escape barely made it to the hospital. Many died moments after.
Sorrow walked the land on four legs. There were wailings and the gnashing of teeth but as it turned out there were hardly people to comfort and sympathize with the bereaved as every home lost someone or has a victim whose situation was critical.
In a swift reaction, the country’s First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan and the State Governor, Rt. Hon Chibuike Amaechi visited the scene to see things for themselves. They expressed shock, sadness and sympathy. The people of Niger Delta also were in sad mood as well as those who saw the disaster said “this is terrible, really terrible.
Though the dead have been buried and the bereaved are now mourning their loved ones, the pertinent question is how did it all happen.
Observers and analysts have blamed the disaster on poverty. Many have also attributed it to poor state of the East-West road, while others said is the stubbornness and greed of the people.
While people were contemplating on the Okogbe petrol fire disaster, another vessel tanker caught fire at the Abuloma Jetty and undisclosed number of people died.
In all the fire disasters, several people lost their lives while some others sustained various degrees of injuries. Property worth millions of naira have also been lost
The monumental loses suffered by the government and people of the state and indeed the entire nation should be sufficient enough to teach us lesson. However, it appears nothing has been learnt from the ugly experiences of the past so far.
In fact, the current buck passing among the fire service, police, NEMA and the communities mocks the reality that it is Nigerians that are roasted in those periodic fires.
Before then, there had been a series of similar incidents across the country, leaving sorrow, tears and blood in their trail.
In October seventeen 1998, Nigerian’s worst fire outbreak caused by a burst pipeline at Jesse Kingdom in Delta State claimed over one thousand two hundred lives.
Just some few weeks of Jesse’s incident, two unidentified people were found floating inside a fuel tank in Benin. They were alleged to have fallen into the tank in the process of trying to siphon fuel from it.
In September 1995, Ogere in Ogun State was the scene of a fire disaster which authorities of PPMC said was caused by illegal buckerers.
The fire at Aba kila Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State in 1994 raged for ten days before a combined team of fire fighters could put it out. The inferno was also caused by a bust NNPC pipeline which the corporation said was the handiwork of illegal oil buckerers who drilled into the pipe to siphoned oil. More than twelve people lost their lives and number of others were wounded.
In March 2000, about fifty people were roasted to death at Umungbede in Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area of Abia State when an oil pipeline caught fire and consumed people around it.
Also, on July tenth 2000, about three hundred people in Okpe Local Government Area of Delta state were reported burnt. The victims were said to be scooping petrol from a burnt pipe when an explosion occurred and ignited fire.
For the second time in a week of the same month, Delta State recorded another petrol induced fire with no fewer than one hundred and fifty people dead. The scene occurred between If ie and Ijala in the Wari South Local government Area, where a speed boat allegedly being used in illegal bunkering caught fire.
Again, available statistics indicated that at least fourteen people had died from explosion at an illegal tapping point along the NNPC pipe network in Mosinmi, Sagamu, Ogun State.
Other incidents and cases of death as a result of pipe blow-out have gone unreported.
For instance, six people were said to have died in Isiala Ngwa in lmo State in the process of illegally tapping fuel.
Yet, no lesson has been learned from the earlier petrol fire incidents.
It would be recalled that over the years, Niger Delta region has been neglected coupled with unbridled negative exploitations which have rendered the entire region hostile to economic prosperity as evidenced by the presence of want, squalor, ignorance, diseases and idleness.
The most worrisome of the problems over the past years no doubt, is the irreconcilability of the palpable poverty of individuals and the environment with the enormous resources nature has endowed it which is sustaining the whole country.
This situation has fuelled the vandalization of pipeline in the region without minding the dangers inherent in the act.
Government cannot said to be unaware that a good number of well meaning and law abiding citizens had fallen victims of this petrol fire disasters in the region. Some roasted beyond recognition; some survivors would continue to carry the scar for the rest of their lives.
Frankly speaking, many have shared the pains and agony of the victims. Others have expressed disappointment with the way government in most cases have handled these petrol fire disasters in the past.
Thus, it is time to find means of eliminating poverty in Niger Delta. We should find positive solutions, we cannot afford to carry on like this.
But it is true that it is only when the people in the region have a means of subsistence that they can resist the temptation to vandalise pipelines to scoop oil product for a living.
Whatever is the case, the consequence would be devastating.
But the truth is that what worried most analysts and observers of the recent disasters is the possibility that the explosion could occur again given the scarcity of petrol in most cases and the high price of the product in the black market.
Also, the truth is that oil wealth had benefited the rich while the poor masses had continued to pay the price.
It would take years to determine the damage to the environment but more noticeable is the harm to people. In this regard, time has come for the need to educate our people not to be so desperate and look for shortcuts to affluence since there are better things to do with their hand instead of risking their lives.
That is why, we commend the wife of the State Governor, Dame Judith Amaechi for the recent meeting she held with the wives of top government officials in the state. In her message, she asked the women to carry out an enlightenment campaign in their respective communities on the inherent dangers of pipeline fire disasters as most affected are women and children.
In the same vein, the relevant agencies into information dissemination should brace up in this regard by carrying out similar enlightenment campaigns in dissuading the people from their action, remind them of the consequences of their act, and that they stood the risk of losing their lives if there was fire.
Again, everyone should be extra cautious in this regard.
Finally, from all indications, it is no longer a question of whether it will happen again, but where and when, except those things that would make the people in the region comfortable are put in place.
Written by: FELIX B I GEORGE
