Agency report
Fifty victims of last Friday’s illegal refinery explosion were given mass burial at Abaezi forest in Abacheke Kpofire Community in Ohaji Egbema Local Government Area of Imo state on Tuesday.
Speaking at the funeral site, Chairman of the local government, Marcel Amadioha, said only 50 victims who couldn’t be identified were given mass burial.
The exercise, which came less than a week after the explosion killed more than 130 persons, was witnessed by security agents and officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
The victims were buried in three graves dug by locals around 5pm.
Journalists and security agents waited for more than six hours for the arrival of health officials expected to fumigate the area after the bodies were collected from various spots where the fire caught them as they tried to flee from the raging inferno.
Amadioha, who spoke to newsmen at the site, said that only 50 of the victims who could not be identified were given mass burial.
One of the youth leaders, Ben Marcus, who spoke to our correspondent, said that some of the victims were identified by their relatives and they were allowed to carry them for burial.
