Four persons have been confirmed dead following a gas explosion at Lord Mike and Sons Nigeria Limited in Ede Obuk area of Akwa Ibom State.

According to Akwa Ibom police command, the victims are Daniel Usoro, Anthony Anthony, Enobong Sampson and Akpabio John.

DSP Odiko MacDon, the state Police Public Relations Officer, disclosed this to newsmen on Monday in Eket Local Government Area of the state.

He said that investigation is ongoing to determine the cause of the accident and to prevent such from occurring again in the state.

“I can confirm the unfortunate incident, as the matter had been reported to the station.

“In fact, the director of the company is currently receiving treatment in an unknown hospital in the state.

“The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Musa Kimo, had commiserated also with the families of the deceased.

“We are calling for safety measures to prevent such incidents from happening again.

“However, we are asking that there should be more safety checks to ensure that similar occurrence does not happen again.

“Meanwhile, we are also interested in knowing how and why the accident happened,” MacDon said.

On his part, Sunny Ekong, the Project Manager of Lord Mike, said that he could not ascertain what led to the explosion of the two cylinders.

“Three out of the victims were working at their new fabrication yard, while one was doing the cutting of pipes before the incident,” Ekong said.

Lord Mike is an indigenous oil servicing company that deals with scaffolding and fabrication, used for cutting and grinding pipes.

According to Ekong, the incident happened about 5:30p.m on Thursday, January 17, while a management meeting was ongoing.

Andy Obot, Safety Officer of the company, said that the incident happened at the close of work.

Obot added that the oxygen and acetylene cylinders exploded and the affected areas were immediately condoned off.

A safety engineer, Ubong Sunday, said causes of such explosions could be expired cylinders and over pressure of the cylinders, among other safety concerns.

The explosion destroyed items that included trucks, caterpillar, Hilux, building, and sound blasting.

•Sourced from a Daily Independent report

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