Nnewi Gas Explosion: Prophet Warned Us Against Disaster – Chikason Staff

A staff of Chikason Industries where several people were burnt to death in a gas explosion on Thursday has lamented that the fire incident occurred two days after they completed a fast carried out on the orders of a pastor.

The staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the tragic incident occurred after they concluded a two-week fasting and prayer to avert the disaster. He said, “The prophet did not specify which of the factories would be affected, but that made every worker participate actively in the prayer sessions. He had warned the chairman of the group of the impending doom. “I don’t know why all these bad things are happening now".

Our chairman is a very good man who is so passionate about the welfare of the downtrodden even at great personal cost. Last time two of his fully loaded trucks just disappeared out of the face of the earth, those vehicles carried items running into millions of naira. That one is yet to be resolved and now this fire disaster.”

Meanwhile, those who escaped with burns have been transferred to Orthopedic hospital in Enugu as the Madonna Hospital, where they were earlier rushed to, could not handle their degrees of burns.

Another pathetic story of the disaster was the death of a family of four with the exclusion of the father. It was gathered that the family was on their way to their home town for Christmas when they stopped by the gas plant to refill their cylinder.

They had their car parked in front of the gate while the wife entered the company to refill her gas cylinder. While she was gone, the husband whose name could not be ascertained left the children inside the car to buy recharge card before the explosion killed the wife inside while the children were all burnt inside the car. Burnt children’s shoes were seen inside the car.

Relatives of victims were on Saturday seen combing the bushes around the factory to see if they could recover the corpse of their family members who were still missing. The relatives of the missing victims said they decided to comb the bushes when they heard that many people died while attempting to run away from the vicinity of the gas plant when the explosion happened.

Mrs. Amaka said: “I cannot just believe that my maid who I sent to refill gas at the factory is gone forever. I am in a deep shitt; what will I tell the family of the girl? I just brought her from the village last three months with the promise to sponsor her education, I have gone to the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH) Nnewi mortuary where the corpses were deposited but my maid was not there.

“Will I just go and tell the parents that their daughter is dead without the corpse? I am finished”.

Some others whose cases might not be too different from that of Amaka were full of tears, while they were busy searching the bushes hoping to find the remains of their relatives that have been missing since the incident occurred. It was learnt that the traditional ruler of Nnewi, Igwe Kenneth Orizu in company of his council of titled chiefs yesterday visited the site of the accident. A spokesperson for the royal father, Chief Dan Ulasi, told journalists that Nnewi has never experienced such level of devastation in its entire history.