Three persons, a woman and her two children have reportedly been killed by an explosion from a cooking stove suspected to have been fed with adulterated kerosene.
The victims whose identity could not be confirmed as at the time of filing this report were reportedly trapped in their house when the tragedy occurred, midday Tuesday.
The incident happened in an Estate in Choba community, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state.
Also, a suspected cultist was killed in a fight with their rival cult group in the Diobu area of Port Harcourt City Local government Area of the state.
The fight was allegedly caused by disagreement by the two cult groups, Dey-gbam and Dey-well (a.k.a, Island and Greenland), over who collects levy (marching ground), from illegal markets being operated by traders in various streets around mile one, mile two and mile three areas of the City, following the closure of daily markets in the state because of the ravaging Coronavirus pandemic.
Spokesman of the state police command, Nnamdi Omoni confirmed the two incidents to the Nation in Port Harcourt, on Tuesday.
He, however, said that he was yet to report a full report of the kerosine explosion death from the Divisional Police Officer in Choba.
Confirming the cult-related death, Omoni noted that three persons were arrested in connection with the incident and that peace has returned to the area with security presence beefed at the strongholds of the cultists, as Investigations has begun.
On the kerosene explosion, unconfirmed reports had it that the father of the house had earlier locked the woman and her two kids in the house and went away with the keys, which made it impossible for them to escape when the explosion occurred.
A source close to the scene alleged that the victims burnt to death in the locked room adding that everything in the house went into flame.
The Nation
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