A gas station explosion has killed a woman identified as Mrs Onyekpandu Ekeada and her four children in Owerri, Imo State.
The explosion which occured at Tiengo Gas Station, located in Umuoma Nekede in Owerri West council area of Imo state Wednesday night also destroyed some farmlands and vegetations at the suburb.
It was said to have been triggered by a truck discharging cooking gas at the station.
An eye witness, Mr Princely Onyenwe explained that 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 of Mr Onyekpandu Ekeada, killing his wife and four children, who were seated in front of their building while some farmlands and vegetations were destroyed.
Mr Onyenwe who was narrating the incident to the deputy governor of Imo State, Prof. Placid Njoku, who visited the scene of the incident weekend, said there was a suspected gas leakage from the gas pipe that fumed for hours but was ignored by the managers of the station.
He disclosed that a patrol station also caught fire in the area a month back, expressing worry at the siting of petrol and gas stations in residential areas.
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 Imolites 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
