(Reuters) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
LAGOS, Sept 4 (Reuters) – At least 37 people died after inhaling fumes as they tried to tap an oil pipeline in \u200bsouthern Nigeria, an environmental group said on Friday, though \u200cauthorities have not confirmed the toll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre said the incident happened at around midnight on Thursday at \u200bOkrika in Rivers State. Police said the victims \u200bdied while attempting to steal crude oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Investigation is \u2060ongoing to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident and \u200bascertain the facts,” said Rivers police spokesperson ASP Blessing Kaborlo \u200bAgabe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The incident, the worst known death toll since at least October 2023, highlights the persistent problem of crude oil theft and \u200bpipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta, where illegal tapping \u200bhas caused deaths, pollution and losses to Nigeria\u2019s oil industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The environmental group said \u200cthe \u2060incident occurred at Okari Jetty while a vessel was loading and suspected thieves were siphoning a petroleum product under high pressure into boats. It said others were \u200bmissing and bodies \u200bhad been \u2060seen floating in the river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reuters was not able to independently confirm what happened and \u200bthe death toll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence \u200bCorps \u2060said circulating casualty figures remained unverified and the substance involved required technical confirmation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It said it was working with security \u2060agencies \u200bto determine the number of dead, \u200binjured and missing, and investigate possible negligence, collusion or criminal facilitation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Reuters) LAGOS, Sept 4 (Reuters) – At least 37 people died after inhaling fumes as they tried to tap an oil pipeline in \u200bsouthern Nigeria, an environmental group said on Friday, though \u200cauthorities have not confirmed the toll. The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre said the incident happened at around midnight on Thursday at \u200bOkrika in Rivers State. Police said the victims \u200bdied while attempting to steal crude oil. “Investigation is \u2060ongoing to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident and \u200bascertain the facts,” said Rivers police spokesperson ASP Blessing Kaborlo \u200bAgabe. The incident, the worst known death toll since at… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61026,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61025,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61023\/revisions\/61025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/61026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}