Death toll in Okrika jetty attack now 40 - LG boss

Bolaji Ogundele, Port Harcourt - 24.12.2007

FRESH revelations about the attack on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Jetty in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State last Wednesday has shown that no fewer than 40 people from various Okrika communities lost their lives during the attack.

Giving details of happenings in the Okrika area to the press in a phone interview on Sunday, the chairperson of the Ijaw Mothers Council, Mrs. Doris McDaniels, also said that three more corpses were on Sunday recovered from Okrika River.

According to Mrs. McDaniels, there is virtually no community in Okrika that did not share in the disaster that followed the oil thieves’ attack on the jetty.

“About 40 persons died in the fire outbreak at the jetty. Every community in Okrika recorded death from the sad incident. There is wailing in the whole town,” she said.

She, however, called on the state government to address the issue of economic empowerment as the cause of the disaster was illegal bunkering.

“From what we have heard and seen, it is very likely that those who knew the truth would have been consumed in that fire, but the story now is that the fire might have been caused by a spark in one of the engines of the boats being used for the illegal bunkering.

And this triggered off the whole fire. “We are not sure it was caused by any militant invasion. Go and see things, even Ateke Tom lost several of his boys in the fire. Till today, corpses are still floating on the water.

“Government should try to put an end to these sad stories in the region. And this can be achieved by empowering the people. The failure of government to do this in the past really exposed the boys to all kinds of money,” she said.