Seven people died on Tuesday morning after inhaling fumes from a generator inside a music studio in Ebis, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
The victims, most of whom were students of Niger Delta University, were working in a recording studio owned by one of them, Akpos Barakubo, when the incident occurred.
According to residents of Ebis, the studio crew worked late into the night using a generator due to a power outage.
The victims fell asleep with the generator running inside the studio and forgot to switch it off before sleeping.
Six bodies were discovered on Tuesday morning, while one individual, found unconscious and rushed to the hospital, later passed away.
Police officials transported the victims’ bodies to a morgue in Yenagoa.
Damion Asamonye, a resident of the area, blamed the state and federal governments as well as the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) for the deaths.
Asamonye lamented that if there had been a steady power supply, they would not have needed to use a generator throughout the night.
He criticized the unreliable power situation in the state, noting that the distribution company only provides electricity when it is time to collect bills, and then disconnects the power shortly after customers have paid for the month.
