Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has said he lacks words to express his profound grief and shock at the unfortunate tanker fire incident that claimed the lives of over 120 people in Okogbe community of Ahoada West Local Government Area of the state.

Speaking during a condolence visit to the community yesterday, at the palace of the traditional ruler of the town, HRH Joshua Eyiba, Eze Igbu Igbuduya, Governor Amaechi, in an emotion-laden, grief-stricken voice said, ‘’it is with a lot of grief that I have come to visit you…I would say to you that I am confused, I do not know exactly how to condole you because the people who are dead now as huge as the number, are also Rivers people that I superintend over, and therefore, I am as pained as you are.

“What do I tell you, what do I tell the community, knowing none of us has the capacity to bring back to life those who were burnt to death,” he said.

Governor Amaechi, who said the tanker fire incident was tragic and devastating, stated that there is still need to enlighten the people alive in the area and the state generally not to ever take the risk of scooping petroleum products wherever the product may be found.

‘’There is a need for enlightenment, that people should know that no matter how bad it is for anybody, it is better to be alive than to go pursuing death. Let this tragedy not happen to us again. Let the fight against poverty not be as desperate as to take as many lives as it has sadly taken with this single fire incident’’, Amaechi added.

‘’As Christians, we should leave to God what has happened and continue to pray to God not to allow this unfortunate incident to happen in any part of Nigeria again.

“I want to express my deep condolences to you and to the community. The state government will continue to take care of the medical needs of those who survived and are in our hospitals. We will continue to do that until they are okay and strong enough to leave.

“I have directed the commissioner for special duties to seek out and identify the families of the victims. As a government, we will sit down and look at what we can do for them, to assist them in some way to cushion the effects of this tragic incident on their lives…” he said.

The Rivers State governor used the occasion to assure the traditional ruler that his administration would continue to bring to the area developmental projects that will benefit the people.

Apart from the completed model primary school and a primary health care centre in the area about to be completed, Governor Amaechi reiterated his government’s determination to provide electricity for all rural areas in the state.

Responding, Eze Joshua Eyiba, said his people had been mourning those who lost their lives in the unfortunate tanker fire disaster.

He thanked Governor Amaechi for coming to sympathize with them.

Earlier, Governor Amaechi was taken round the scene of the fire incident by Hon. Asita Honourable, who described in graphic details what happened on that black Thursday.

Amaechi also visited the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) to sympathize with victims receiving treatment at the hospital, and assured that the state government would continue to do all it can for them.

Meanwhile, Barely five days after a ferocious tanker fire consumed more than 100 persons in Okogbe community, in what appears the worst fire disaster in Rivers State in recent history, residents and family members of the victims have continued to identify and claim scores of charred bodies of their loved ones.

About 120 of the victims, were given mass burial few meters away from the site of the gory incident.

However, member representing Ahoada East and Ahoada West Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon Asita Honourable has paid condolence visits to families of victims of the inferno, and called for the overhaul of the nation’s emergency response network.

As at the weekend, The Tide gathered that families of some of those who died while receiving treatment in hospitals and clinics nearby struggled amidst tears, to collect corpses of their relatives, friends, mothers, fathers, for burial.

The Tide learnt from villagers that an entire family of five were lost, including father, mother, and three children, while another family of three also lost both husband and wife and their only surviving child.

The Tide can confirm that Okogbe community identified more than 35 of its indigenes, while neighbouring communities, including Uyakama identified seven, Ogbologbo five, Ula Kobo three, and Ozochi identified two of its people among the dead at the site of the incident.

But The Tide gathered that most of the victims are strangers living and doing business in the ever-busy rural community, among them, Igbos, Yorubas, Hausa/Fulanis, Isokos, Ijaws, and other from Engenni and Ogba clans.

Also identified were pupils and students of Okogbe Community Secondary and Primary School who abandoned class to part-take in the business.

However, another woman, who was too grief-stricken to talk, was not so lucky, as her little and only son was one of the victims of the black Thursday incident.

Meanwhile, Hon Asita Honourable has blamed the high casualty figure during the last week’s petrol tanker fire at Okogbe on poor emergency response mechanism.

Speaking with newsmen after paying condolence visits to families, victims and the Eze Igbuduya and Head Chief of Okogbe Community, Eze Joshua Eyiba last Saturday, Hon Asita stressed the need to decentralise the nation’s emergency management system.

He, however, thanked the Rivers State Government and the local authorities for responding quickly to the situation, and commended the state government for setting up the Rapid Response Team to take care of survivors.

Asita appealed to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to carry out the directive of President Goodluck Jonathan to provide relief materials to victims and the community.

Also speaking, Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, Hon Samuel Eyiba expressed sadness over the incident, and condoled with families who lost their loved ones, assuring that the state government would do everything within its powers to ensure the victims and survivors are taken care of medically.

In his remarks, Chairman, Ahoada West Local Government Area, Hon Awori Miller disclosed plans to fumigate the circumference of the mass grave where the victims were buried last Thursday.

He said the council will ensure that the site was fully disinfected to prevent any health epidemic, adding that the exercise has become imperative because more bodies were discovered in the bush close to the site.

Miller hinted that the council would carry out sensitisation on the dangers of petrol products, and called on those who lost their loved ones to take solace in God.

Kevin Nengia