 Now, no fewer than 109 persons have been burned to death after fire, gutted, and legal or refinery site at Abacheke in the Iberma community in Ohaji, Iberma, local government area of Iberma State. Now, it was gathered that an incident occurred, which occurred on Friday night, claims cause of life while others were seriously injured. The head of operations of the National Emergency Management Agency, Yifan Naji, while confirming the incident said only 20 persons died during the inferno. But in an update on Saturday, Naji said so far, 109 bodies had been recovered while others were still missing. We have the Commissioner for Opportunity Resources in Iberma State, Goodluck Opiea, joining us on this conversation. Good morning to you, Mr. Opiea. Many thanks for joining us on the breakfast. Thank you. All right. This is a terrible situation over the weekend. Can you just give us an update specifically on what happened and what we have at this particular time? What's going on? Like you just said, it was an ugly incident that took place mid-nights of February, the second of February, in the Iberma and the local government area. There are too many lives well off. At the moment, there is no definite, the number runged around or the summaries that many people died. I have personally visited the sites of the incident, the Honorable Commissioner for Health and the Honorable Commissioner for Environment also visited the Iberma officer, the Church of the South East, also visited this arrangement, which are crowned to ensure the evacuation of the bond bodies today, and then the Minister of Environment is taking steps to on that side, the evacuation of the area. Nima has promised to do something quickly, find a solution for the affected families. So far, that is the situation. All right. Let's still talk about this issue of an illegal refinery, because from what you've told us, the explosion was a result of an explosion, a fire at the illegal refining site. What's the situation with this oil-bonkering activities in Emo State? How far has your ministry gone on this particular issue? Because over time, there have been a series of explosions, not just in Emo State, but other states, in the river state, and other states that we can even mention. It has been going on, unabated, and over time, it has resulted in people losing their lives and people actually being wounded and seriously. From what you've told us, a whole lot of people died in the inferno. But tell us specifically the activities of illegal bonkering and what your ministry has done to actually bring this down over time. Okay. Thank you very much. In the very unfortunate situation, there are so many cases of illegal bonkering by all governments, corporals, criminals who have vandalized crude oil pipelines, siphoned crude oil, sometimes for refining, sometimes for outright sale of crude oil, we didn't buy this as don't want to moat our environment, our rivers, our fishing poles, and of course, our soil. We don't mean that people are farmers and fishermen, and the exploration of oil, generally, even by the oil companies themselves, is affecting the environment. The activities of the illegal refiners who use on convention, I mean, it's even worse because bulk of the quantity of the crude which are unable to refine goes into the soil, goes into the rivers, goes into the fishing poles, are particulars and lots of wildlife are destroyed, and of course, like I said, soil fertility is also eroding. People suffer, besides the environmental problems, illegal bonkering is an economic sabotage affecting the economy of the country, the economy of the state, the government, through the ministry of petrol, resources, I didn't do so much. We have been embattled on advocacy, trying to let the people know the negative consequences of illegal bonkering. We also partnered with some oil companies to particularly attach some of the illegal refiners. But the more you destroy the illegal refiners, the more they crop up here and there, so is there a problem, is that everybody appears to be involved in this whole place here and there? Let me just barge in here for a bit. You said that the more you try to apprehend these illegal refiners, the more they keep on with their activities. Why is that the case? They are aware. You have done a lot of advocacy, done a lot of sensitization to these people, and they know what the consequences are. Why do you think they would actually risk their own lives to be involved in something that could actually kill them? Honestly, it's difficult for me to say the reasons why people get this, above their social risk here, society or business. Some people want to say, ah, it's the result of unemployment, it's the result of poverty and hunger. But can unemployment be responsible for somebody taking of that kind of risky venture? And a crime that is well known, the consequences they bring, you know, so I don't think you want to sympathize with anybody who gets involved in this and, you know, because it's unemployed. Unemployment is a global issue here, the national problem. So if you think that something is worse, I don't want to get involved in it. Let's get to it now. Justin had asked what you're doing. I mean, you are the commissioner at this particular, I mean, looking at this sphere of control and it has to do with petroleum. What's your ministry doing? What are you doing? Yeah, like I said earlier, we have committees attacking the presence of these facilities in the bush. We collaborate with security agencies and all these companies, you know, provide the equipment. This is what they want to be, what they are destroyed. Some can bury them on the ground. But it hasn't been able to, you know, have been getting rid of these activities. So I think what we have decided tomorrow is to go after these operators, taking them and arrest them at the shop or park. Okay, so let's get back to it again. You have mentioned that there's need to go after them and arrest them. And there's a lot of collaboration that you have actually done, you know, with the all producing companies. But the governor of river states recently had mentioned that the reason that all bonkers is thriving in Nigeria is because security agencies are involved. He mentioned the fact that, you know, the army, the civil defense, everyone, we talked about the security agencies. And that's the reason why it is so difficult, you know, to fight this particular issue, not also overlooking the fact that we actually end from this. If you look at our earnings, we're a monocultural economy. We are, we are highly dependent on oil at the end of the day for our earnings. And so if we have people who are stealing the oil or vandalizing, and if you have all of this, it's definitely telling on our economy. So what did you make of this? Do you also think that security agencies are involved in this? And that's why the fight is so impossible, because who do you arrest now? Yeah, I think it's part of the major problem. The major problem is that there's so much carnivance between security agencies who are supposed to be the ones fighting against these menace. Most of them get involved in the business, become partners in crime with perpetrators of criminal crime. And it's actually not helping my cause, the problem. All right, Mr. Opia, can you give us maybe a bit of clarity so far in your advocacy and sensitization? How many illegal, bunkering sites or refining sites have you been able to discover in the state? Specifically now, for this one that happened over the weekend, what are the plans, the immediate plans for the affected community? Well, there are many of them. Along with the oil producing areas of Haji Buma and the Buta, along with the pipelines, Shell, Haji Buma and the other oil companies, too many of them. The terrain is not quite easy. These things are done right inside the creeks and swarms and thick forests that sometimes it's very difficult to penetrate. It's just not an easy task. I think what happens is that time goes on to continue to come up with new ideas based on what's also concerning the new strategy. There are many, there are many of these ideas right. But I just hope that what has happened will be a deterrent to some of them. And I really doubt it because even before now, incidents like this have been happened but not this magnitude and not to the knowledge of many people. So I think I think that, believe me, the difficult situation is a menace. The measures are laid on the hands of governments. But I pray God will help us to work on. Alright, I also asked the extent of damage done from the visuals we could see. There were burnt cars and lands burnt. But are their villages affected, aside from life that were lost, where farms were spawned? What's the extent of this damage to the ecosystem and of course the waterways? What's the extent of this particular infant that happened over the weekend? What's the extent of damage to the environment? We know that over 100 lives have been lost. What's the extent of damage? When I visited the area, I was amazed at the level of devastation. Not just by the panel, but by the product of the refining yourselves. I think this whole process is a complete Western. It is not even capable of extracting the contents of the crude. So the rest they cannot work on the river, the fishing pond and of course on the soil. You go around that area the whole quarter hour. Since you've said that farm lands, the soil and the rivers have been affected, are you asking residents to stop farming or to stop fishing in that particular area for some time? What exactly are you saying to residents right now? Well, in fact, in some of the farms, there wouldn't be any need to fish because there's no fish anymore there. Some of the fishing pond, there wouldn't be. I think that there is need to even confirm if fish is in the streams or even working in any more. So these are the challenges that have passed before us. Alright, we must say a very big thank you to you. Good luck up your commission for petroleum resources in Amos data. Thank you so much for all the thoughts that you have shared on the Inferno in your state that happened over the weekend. We do appreciate your time. You're welcome. Thank you for having me. It is our pleasure. It is still the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. That's as much as we can take on this conversation. We'll take a quick break and when we come back, we're looking at party politics. Lots of numbers are talking here, the People's Democratic Party and Reno Omokri saying that they might not release a huge chance come 2023. We'll look at all of that in a moment, still with us.