Metro

Generator fumes claim seven lives in Bayelsa

About seven people have lost their lives after inhaling the fumes from the generator inside a music studio along Transformer Road, in the Amarata axis of Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

The deceased persons were said to be working in the recording studio owned by one of them, identified as Akpos Barakubo, where the incident happened on Monday night, breaking Tuesday.

According to the residents of the area, the crew members in the studio were working until midnight using their generating set due to the poor power supply in the state and reportedly fell asleep, forgetting to switch off the generator.

The Nigerian Tribune gathered that six bodies were later discovered dead in the morning, while one who was unconscious and rushed to the hospital later gave up.

It was also gathered that most of the deceased are undergraduate students from the Niger Delta University (NDU), who are into the recording business to support themselves in school.

As of the time of filling out this report, security operatives have cordoned off the area, while the corpses have been evacuated to the mortuary.

A resident of the area, Mr Damion Asamonye, blamed the state and federal governments as well as the power distribution company for the deaths of the people, saying that if there was adequate power supply, there wouldn’t have been any need for power-generating sets at night.

He lamented the situation in Bayelsa State where Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) will only supply power when they want to collect bills and put residents in blackout shortly after consumers pay the bills.

He said, “Both the federal and state governments have failed us; if there was a public power supply, maybe these people wouldn’t have lost their lives in these circumstances.

“Seven able-bodied young men just died like that because of the failure of the government. The most annoying thing is that tomorrow, the PHED personnel will come with ladders to disconnect the light that they are not supplying. How can people be spending their money in fueling generators despite the current hardship in Nigeria, even after paying for light bills? ”

Another resident in the area, Mrs. Joy Reuben, said the neighbourhood woke up on Tuesday morning to witness the tragic incident, calling on the government to ensure that there is adequate power supply in the state so citizens will not be allowed to die in such circumstances again.

When contacted, the police spokesman in Bayelsa State, ASP Musa Muhammed, promised to find out and call back but did not pick up his calls afterwards.

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