A mother and her four children were burnt to death on Friday morning in a fire outbreak at their residence in the Okochiri community, Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Although the cause of the inferno could not be immediately established, a source who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the incident occurred when an individual attempted to discharge petrol into a jerrycan, causing the product to ignite.
The source added that the petrol was suspected to be bad fuel.
Confirming the incident in an interview with our correspondent, the Commander of the Civilian Joint Task Force in Okrika LGA, Igwe Godswill, said details of the incident remained sketchy.
Godswill stated that the lifeless bodies of the woman and her four children were found when he and his team arrived at the scene.
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He said, “There are no proper details as to what happened. But when we got there, we saw that about four children and their mother, a total of five persons, were burnt and died.
“The police had already arrived and taken proper details of what happened. It is so disheartening that this is happening again in our community.”
