While some of the residents in the area
complained that the site of the gas plant was
abnormal, others blamed the company’s
activities for the ugly incident.
They accused the company of engaging in
supply and delivery of cooking gas at the same
time to a very large crowd of customers which
aggravated the leakage that led to the
explosion.
The explosion, which occurred on Friday in
Nigeria’s southeast region, was so intense that
nearby buildings were destroyed, while a block
industry, construction garage and farmlands
were not spared.
Some occupants of one of the affected
buildings, Obinna Okeke and Emmanuel Ezeani,
said that their matriarch was burnt to death
while the building was badly damaged.
They condemned the location of the gas plant,
asking for it to be removed from the residential
area.
As the blames and the accusations went on,
the incident was also accompanied by
conflicting reports of the number of deaths
recorded.
While the Anambra State Commissioner of
Police, Hassan Karma, said that the death toll
stood at eight and the injured was six, one of
the residents, Benedict Nwachukwu, claimed
otherwise, saying he counted up to 62 corpses,
but could not say when the bodies were moved
and where they were kept.
Also reacting to the differing death figure was
the former Deputy Governor of Anambra State,
Virgy Etiaba, who made a fact finding visit to
Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital Nnewi,
where the bodies of the victims were said to
have been kept.
Information gathered at the hospital, in the
absence of the Chief Medical Director was in
consonance with the account of the state’s
Police Commissioner confirming eight dead
and six injured with only five bodies in the
morgue.
The mortician at Nnewi Diocesan Hospital also
said that no corpse from the accident was
deposited in the hospital morgue.
Stricken with grief over the calamity that befell
his subject and owner of the gas plant, the
traditional ruler of Nnewi, Igwe Kenneth Orizu,
sympathised with him and the entire Nnewi
community.
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