Generator Fumes Kill 7 Undergraduates In Bayelsa

Tragedy struck in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital on Tuesday as seven young men lost their lives after inhaling the fumes from a power generating set inside a music studio.

The deceased persons were said to be to working in the recording studio located along Transformer Road in Amarata axis of Yenagoa, owned by one of them identified as Akpos Barakubo.

Residents of the area, who spoke to LEADERSHIP, said that the crew members in the studio were working into the midnight using their generating set due to poor public power supply in the state, but may have fallen asleep and forgot to switch off the generator.

It was gathered that six of them were later discovered dead in the morning, while one of the victims who was unconscious and rushed to the hospital later gave up the ghost.

According to sources, most of the deceased were undergraduate students of the Niger Delta University (NDU), Amasoma, Bayelsa State, who were into the music recording business to help themselves in school.

As at the time of filing this report, security operatives have cordoned off the area, while the corpses of the victims had been evacuated to the mortuary.

A resident of the area, Mr Damion Asamonye, blamed the state and federal governments as well as power distribution company (DisCo) for the death of the young men, adding that if there was adequate power supply, there wouldn’t have been any need for using generator at night.

He lamented the situation in Bayelsa State where Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) will only bring light when they wanted to collect monthly energy bills and shut down power shortly after customers had pay their bills.

“Both Federal and State governments have failed us, if there was public power supply, maybe these people wouldn’t have lost their lives in this circumstance.

“Seven able-bodied young men just died like that because of the failure of government. Most annoying thing is that tomorrow, the PHED personnel will come with ladder to disconnect light that they are not supplying. How can people be spending their money in fueling generators despite the current hardship in Nigeria, even after paying for energy bills?,” Asamonye asked.

Another resident in the area, Mrs Joy Reuben, said that the whole neighborhood woke up on Tuesday morning to witness the tragic incident, calling on government to ensure that there is adequate power supply in the state, so that citizens will not be allowed to die in such circumstances again.

When contacted, the Police spokesman in Bayelsa State, ASP Musa Muhammed, promised to find out and call back, but he did not pick up his phone calls afterwards.