In the early hours of Tuesday, tragedy struck in the Amarata suburb of Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, as seven people lost their lives after inhaling fumes from a generator placed inside a music studio.
The incident occurred along Transformer Road in the Yenagoa Local Government Area.
Residents reported that the deceased were working in a recording studio owned by one of them, identified as Akpos Barakubo.
They had worked late into the night on Monday, using a generator due to the poor power supply in the state.
The victims are believed to have fallen asleep with the generator running in the studio, which lacked proper ventilation.
Six of the victims were found dead on Tuesday morning, while one, who was unconscious, was rushed to the hospital but later passed away. Some of the victims were reportedly students of Niger Delta University (NDU), who were involved in the recording business to support themselves through school.
Security operatives cordoned off the area, and the bodies were evacuated and deposited at the morgue.
A resident named Damion, who spoke with Vanguard, blamed the incident on the poor power supply in the state.
He said, “If there was public power supply maybe these people wouldn’t have lost their lives in these circumstances.
“Seven able-bodied young men just died like that because of the failure of government. The most annoying thing is that tomorrow, the PHED personnel will come with a ladder to disconnect light that they are not supplying. How can people be spending their money on fueling generators despite the current hardship in Nigeria, even after paying for light bills?”
Attempts to get a reaction from the spokesman of the state police command, ASP Musa Muhammed, were unsuccessful as his mobile phone line was not reachable.
