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BURNT,
DEPRIVED AND ABANDONED
- HISTORY
In the months of January, February up till June 2001, there were
series of devastating and deadly explosions in Edo State, Nigeria.
Explosions emanating from the use of "unspecified kerosene
product". Many innocent lives were lost. A great number of
"lucky" others survived with life-threatening deformities,
injuries and large-scale loss of property to tell the story.
The
explosion was widespread as it rocked Benin City (the state
capital), Ekpoma, Auchi, Sabongidda-Ora, Afuze, Igarra and many
towns and villages all over the state.
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HIGHLIGHTS
OF THE EXPLOSIONS
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| CASUALTY:
The Justice Wilson Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the
incidents gave official figure of victims as "873 out
of which 95 died". This figure has been widely faulted,
as indications are that "about 1,100 persons were affected,
including some 200 deaths."
WHO
ARE THE VICTIMS? Victims are mostly vulnerable children
and women, amongst the underclass of the Nigeria Society.
About 95% of victims sustained varying degrees of bodily
burns; out of which some 200 need
re-constructive surgery overseas. Other organizations
that also investigated the incidents put the figure at
1,100 victims and over 200 deaths. Obviously, some other
incidents, especially those that occurred after the conclusion
of investigation by the Wilson Commission, were not recorded.
PROPERTY
LOSS: Losses are estimated at Twenty Two Million,
Four Hundred and Twenty Thousand, Four Hundred and Twenty
Seven Naira, Twenty Eight Kobo (N22,420,427.28) - about
US$200,000. This estimate by the commission was unarguably
underestimated as there is a case of three victims whose
losses, alone, are conservatively estimated at over) N24
million (US$210,000)
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SOURCES:
Justice Wilson Judicial Commission of Inquiry (Set up
on the incidents by the Edo State Government), the Save
Accident Victims Association of Nigeria (SAVAN) and LifeTag.
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- SOME
IMMEDIATE REACTIONS TO THE EXPLOSION.
Although no press statement was credited to the Edo State Governor,
Chief Lucky Igbinedion, on the heels of the outbreak of the explosion,
but his wife, Mrs. Eki Igbinedion, who visited some of the victims
in the hospitals, was however, effusive:
"I
feel so bad that words are not adequate to describe what I've
just seen. It's very sad to see women and children so badly
burnt" - The Guardian, January 25, 2001.
"The
excruciating pains which the victims were going through and
the gory and the unsightly burn on their bodies presented a
pathetic sight reminiscent of the victims of the Hiroshima atomic
bombs of the Second World War" - The Vanguard, November
23, 2001, quoting Justice (Mrs.) Atinuke Akomolafe Wilson, Chairman
of the Commission, at a Press Conference, while submitting the
commission's report.
- PRESENT
CONDITIONS OF THE VICTIMS
About three years after the incidents, most of the victims still
have festering sores and bizarre disfigurement. Many remain homeless
and live unhealthy and abnormal lives. Dying by installments is
their unfortunate fate. Where succor is expected, there is an
abundant lack of dire medical and social needs. To stay alive,
some of the victims now resort to begging for alms under unbearable
and dehumanizing conditions - (The Midwest Times Newspaper, August
26, 2002).
Unfortunately,
most of the victims are just women and children - the underprivileged
and the defenseless of the Nigerian society. The tragedy has
robbed many victims of their humanity, dignity and tremendously
reduced their self-esteem and worth. It has hampered their ability
to socially interact with their peers and other members of the
community. Indeed, many of the child-victims are refused school
enrolment, because their monstrous looks scare away other pupils.
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ORIGIN
OF THE KILLER-KEROSENE
Indications
that the killer-kerosene originated from the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation/Pipelines and Products Marketing Company
(NNPC/PPMC) Benin Depot came directly from victims' accounts
of the incidents. One of them said on the Nigeria Television
Authority (NTA) Network News in January 2001: "When my
daughter brought the kerosene from the filling station, I asked
her what kind of kerosene is this that is smelling like petrol...."
This was widely reported in the Nigerian Media, including The
Guardian of 1st February, 2001. The corporation's account that
the products may have been "adulterated" by Independent
Petroleum Marketers and others, especially before the Justice
Wilson Commission and the investigation panel of the House of
Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources, was widely
faulted. Obviously, the products could not have been adulterated,
simultaneously, all over the state, going by the widespread
of the incidents.
The possibility of adulteration was also ruled out since it
was, at the period of explosions, considered unprofitable to
do so, because of the high cost of Petrol and other allied products.
Kerosene was much more cheaper and available than other products
at that time; and all products were escorted from the NNPC/PPMC
depot to the filling stations by the Edo State Task Force on
Petroleum Products Monitoring.
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NNPC'S
DENIAL OF LIABILITY
NNPC, in a guise to cover up its inefficiency and decades of
neglect of the numerous victims of similar kerosene explosion
incidents in the country, denied that the killer-kerosene ever
emanated from its Benin depot. And in its first reaction to
the initial outbreak of the incidents, NNPC's Group Manager,
Public Affairs, Ndu Ughamadu, insisted that it (killer-product)
was not supplied from their depot, for according to him, it
was unlike their usual products; not dyed, and that it may have
come as petrol from NNPC's pipeline and resold to consumers
in Benin as kerosene, maintaning that NNPC carries out "standard
analysis" on all products before releasing such for consumption"
- (The Guardian Newspaper February 1, 2001).
Former
NNPC/PPMC Benin Depot manager, Adekunle Onosola, also echoed
this - (The Nigerian Observer, Monday April 2, 2001). Using
the words "probable causes" etc., in its press statement,
as underlined hereunder. It is, however, evident that NNPC could
not have carried out any investigations into the Edo explosions,
as it claimed to have done, before jumping into conclusions.
"Marketers
have been known to interchange tankers (i.e. tanker that has
lifted petrol, for kerosene), rather than dedicate a tanker
to each product as specified by law. Sometimes, vandals deliberately
break the pipelines, steal petrol from the system and sell it
as kerosene …", the corporation's spokesperson claimed.
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IS
NNPC CULPABLE?
Although it was quite evident that the killer-product emanated
from NNPC/PPMC Benin Depot, due to its negligence for having
piped to marketers the "highly combustible petrol to lift
instead of kerosene", NNPC had again been caught in the
vortex of buck-passing, by issuing disclaimer on kerosene safety,
and had made it very clear that purchasers of kerosene in Nigeria
do so at their own risk.
"At
worst this is a disguised disavowal of a responsibility that
rests squarely on the laps of the NNPC as the sole and official
agent of the Federal Government in oil matters" - (The
Guardian Newspaper, Thursday May 29, 2003 - Editorial).
The
corporation may have tacitly contradicted and indicted itself
over its culpability, when it (NNPC), in a press statement (THISDAY,
The Sunday Newspaper, May 18, 2003) said thus: "…before
the marketers lift the products … the quality is certified
by the representative of each marketer and the NNPC, amongst
others." The puzzle is: Why would the NNPC continue to
shift the blame to the marketers alone, when it (NNPC) publicly
admitted that it usually conducted joint tests with the marketers?
In
a counter press statement by LifeTag and KEVA, the NGOs pointed
out that the
"refusal to compensate and rehabilitate the Edo victims
is due to the fact that NNPC has an erroneous mindset about
those who must be held liable"- (The Punch Newspaper, Wednesday,
May 28, 2003).
- COUNTER-REACTIONS
TO NNPC's DENIALS
"We (Independent Marketers) were not given the report of
the test conducted on the kerosene sample taken from the station
(NNPC/PPMC Benin Depot). NNPC should bury its pride and admit
that they supplied the adulterated product" - The Nigerian
Observer, March 30, 2001, a dealer and owner of Nene Petrol Station
Benin, representing other petrol dealers, while testifying before
the House of Representatives Committee.
"NNPC has been harboring and sustaining those guilty of
the same atrocity of products' adulteration or mistaken product
lifting within its establishments, whereas the Federal Government
had set an example when it persecuted a staff of an independent
petroleum marketing company for such acts", LifeTag, in
conjunction with Access to Justice, SAVAN, KEVA and others,
in a statement issued during a protest march to the corporate
headquarters of the NNPC, Abuja.
"Internal
Memorandum of the PPMC Benin Depot and joint laboratory analysis
of the Dual Purpose Kerosene at the Benin Depot implicated the
NNPC"- Hon. Ehioghe West-Idahosa, former chairman, House
of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources, told newsmen.
"Last
year, the NNPC's management ignored repeated summons by the
House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources, whose
preliminary investigation indicted the NNPC depot in Benin for
sales of petrol to house-wives as kerosene… "Up till
date, it is unclear how the House of Reps resolved this monumental
scandal. The negligence of the National Assembly means that
the NNPC's monopoly is license to kill with impunity. Everyone
is at the mercy of Almighty NNPC. Who is the next casualty of
another kerosene bomb?" - excerpt from an article, NNPC's
guilt in Edo Kero Fire, by a seasoned columnist, Soni Ehi-Asuelimen
(The Punch Newspaper, Thursday December, 2003).
"Government
(of Edo State) has decided to constitute a high-powered committee
to source for funds from NNPC/PPMC, major and minor marketers
of petroleum products, who government considers to be vicariously
liable for the unfortunate incident" (Taken from a press
statement dated 12th December, 2002, and signed by Lucky Wasa,
chief press secretary to Edo State Governor, which the government
regarded as its "White Paper" on the report of the
Wilson Commission).
- WHERE
IS THE COMPENSATION FOR THE VICTIMS?
Edo State Governor, Chief Lucky Igbinedion (eight long months
after the serial explosions), publicly remarked that "President
Olusegun Obasanjo had approved the payment of compensation for
the victims by those responsible for the explosions" - (The
Vanguard Newspaper, 23rd November, 2001). Therefore, if NNPC's
position for denying the compensation is inability to identify
those liable, how could President Obasanjo, in the first case,
approve and or instruct that compensation be paid by some unidentified
culprit(s)?
Similarly, Justice (Mrs.) Wilson, chairman of the judicial commission,
while submitting the commission's report, told newsmen that the
"Commission had recommend the amount (?) of compensation
for all affected victims and safety measures to be taken to avert
future occurrences" - (The Vanguard Newspaper, 23rd
November, 2001).
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