An explosion at a gas station has killed a woman, Onyekpandu Ekeada and her four little children in a suburb of Owerri, the Imo State capital. The blast also destroyed some farmlands in the area.
The incident happened after fire broke out in Tiengo Gas Station, located in Umuoma Nekede in Owerri West council area of Imo state, Wednesday night.
Narrating the incident to the deputy governor of Imo State, Prof. Placid Njoku, who visited the scene of the incident at the weekend, an eye witness, Princely Onyenwe, said the explosion occurred when the gas tanker was discharging its contents at the station.
He said a wave was suspected to have taken the flames to the direction of a nearby building, owned by Onyekpandu Ekeada, killing his wife and four children.
The deputy governor, Prof. Placid Njoku condemned indiscriminate siting of petrol and gas stations in residential areas of the state. He said the state government was saddened to receive the news of the death of people under such circumstances adding that government would review the situation and put appropriate measures to ensure that such incident did not repeat itself. “We will put measures in place and implement existing laws to ensure the state does not lose its citizens to the careless establishment by people who do not want to obey very simple rules of the state”, he said. Prof. Njoku was accompanied to the site of the inferno by the State Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), Rajid Ibrahim.
