No fewer than seven individuals, reportedly university undergraduates, have lost their lives after inhaling fumes from a generator inside a music studio on Transformer Road, Ebis, in the Amarata area of Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa state.
The victims, whose identities are yet to be confirmed, were working in the recording studio, which is owned by one of them identified as Akpos Barakubo, when the incident occurred on Tuesday morning.
It is reported that most of the victims were youths, with some of them already married.
Residents of Ebis indicated that the studio crew worked late into the night using their generators due to inadequate power supply in the state.
It was gathered that the victims fell asleep with the generator running inside the studio and forgot to switch it off before dozing off.
The report stated that six bodies were discovered on Tuesday morning, while one individual, found unconscious and rushed to the hospital, later passed away.
It was also revealed that most of the deceased were undergraduates from the state-owned Niger Delta University (NDU) in Amassoma, who were involved in the recording business to support their education.
At the time of the report, security operatives had cordoned off the area.
The victims’ bodies were said to have been evacuated and taken to a morgue in Yenagoa by police officials.
A resident of the area, Damion Asamonye, blamed the state and federal governments as well as the Port Harcourt Distribution Company (PHED) for the deaths of the seven individuals.
He lamented that if there had been an adequate power supply, they would not have needed to use a generator throughout the night, which led to their fatal inhalation of carbon monoxide.
Asamonye criticized the unreliable power situation in the state, noting that the distribution company only provides electricity when it is time to collect bills and then disconnects the power shortly after customers have paid for the month.
Asamonye 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 this callous manner. It is sad and painful. Seven promising men just died like that because they were trying to eke out a living for themselves.
“Seven able-bodied young men just died in such a manner because of the failure of government. The most annoying thing is that tomorrow, the PHED personnel will come with their ladders to disconnect lights that they are not supplying. How can people be spending their humongous money on paying for darkness and fueling generators despite the current hardship in Nigeria, even after paying for light bills?
Another resident, Mrs Joy Reuben, whose neighbours woke up in the wee hours of Tuesday to witness the tragic incident, called on the government to ensure that there is the adequate power supply in the state so that citizens would not be allowed to die in such unthinkable circumstances again.
When contacted, the spokesman for the state police command, ASP Musa Mohammed, said he heard about the incident but was yet to get briefs from the Divisional Police Officer (PRO) in charge of the area.
He, however, promised to keep the press updated as soon as he got the details of the incident.
-Thenation
