President Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to last Friday’s explosion at an illegal oil refinery in Abaezi forest in the Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State that claimed over 50 lives, describing it as “catastrophe and a national disaster”.
According to Declan Emelumba, Imo State Commissioner for Information, fire broke out, Friday night, and quickly spread to two fuel storage areas at the illegal crude oil refinery, causing huge explosions in the complex. There were morbid prospects of death toll rising as high as 100.
In his reaction to the tragedy, President Buhari, according to his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, directed the armed forces, security and intelligence agencies to intensify the clampdown on illegal refineries.
According to Shehu, Buhari said responsibility for the loss of lives and property must squarely lie with the sponsors of the illegal refinery, “who must all be caught and made to face justice.”
In conveying “the condolences and the full depth and range of the nation’s shock and trauma” to the families of the victims, the Ohaji Egbema community and the government and people of Imo State, the President urged community leaders, the police, and the secret service to never allow the occurrence of the heart-breaking incident in any part of the country again.