Anita Ogona
Residents of Ebi’s Mechanic Road, Amarata area in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, were on Tuesday thrown into mourning after the decomposing bodies of seven friends were found in a music studio apartment.
The tragic incident, suspected to have been caused by generator fumes in the studio owned by one of the deceased, identified as Akpos Barakubo, occurred after their studio session, and they decided to have a little rest in the apartment.
The six bodies were discovered dead in the morning while one who was unconscious and rushed to the hospital later died.
According to the residents of the area, the crew members in the studio were working into the night using their generating set due to poor power supply in the state and may have fallen asleep and forgot to switch off the generator.
It was also gathered that most of the deceased are undergraduate students from the Niger Delta University, NDU, who are into the recording business to help themselves in school.
A resident of the area, Mr Damion Asamonye, blamed the state and federal governments as well as the power distribution company for the death of the people, saying if there was adequate power supply, there wouldn’t have been any need for a generator at night.
He lamented the situation in Bayelsa State where Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company, PHED, only supplies light when bills are shared.
He said: “Both the federal and state governments have failed us, if there was a 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 in fueling generators despite the current hardship in Nigeria, even after paying for light bills.?
Another resident in the area, Mrs. Joy Reuben, said the whole neighborhood woke up on Tuesday morning to witness the tragic incident, calling on the 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 call back with more details but did not pick his calls afterwards.
As of the time of filing the report, security operatives have cordoned off the area while the corpses have been evacuated to the mortuary.
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