No fewer than 10 persons were feared dead at Umomumu, in Mbieri autonomous community of Mbaitoli local government areas of Imo state from generator fume when some guests who attended a traditional wedding ceremony slept in the house of the host.
Our correspondent gathered the guests, said to be 50 in number, had stayed back after the traditional wedding ceremony of Favour and Ifeanyi Nzegbu to savour the joys of the moment and had gone to bed while a generator used on the occasion was placed inside the house.
It was further gathered that a brother to one of the victims, who was worried that he had not come back, had called him repeatedly without response.
When he got no response, he decided to go to the house to check out.
After several knock and no response, the door had to be forced open only to behold scores of people lying in various stages of unconsciousness.
All the other doors had to be forced open and the victims brought outside one after the other by the neighbours. Four persons were said to have died on the spot.
A witness and leader of the community, Dr. Martins Ezuruike, said that when his attention was drawn to the incident, he rushed there to supervise the evacuation of the victims to the general hospital. While some were rushed to the Ikeduru Hospital, others were rushed to Nworieubi Health Centre.
Ezuruike said he had to release his car to assist in the evacuation of the victims before the arrival of policemen.
At the Ikeduru Hospital, the Administrator, Dr. Austine Agbahiwe, told our correspondent that 20 people were rushed to the hospital.
He said 17 have regained consciousness and are being rehabilitated with life support machines.
“We were able to revive 17 persons out of the 20 persons brought to the hospital, while three were BID (brought in dead). The survivors are on oxygen and are responding well to treatment.
“We are now battling to ensure that the survivors come out of coma and are stable,” Dr. Agbahiwe said.
When our correspondent visited the community, there was a pale of grief as they gathered in clusters to discuss the development.
Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer, Orlando Ikeokwu, said: “At about 0800hrs of today, one Herbert Uzoegbu, reported that his brother Raymond Uzoegbu, hosted the traditional wedding of his daughter yesterday 9/6/19, which eventually lasted till late at night, that he went to check on the said brother of his this morning around 0700hrs only to discover that they were still indoors.
“He knocked but no one answered; he broke into the house and discovered that everyone in the house was unconscious. As a result, he alerted the police.
“Then, a team of policemen led by the CSP Godwin Udom arrived the scene and evacuated all the victims to the hospital, where it was discovered that six had already given up the ghost with about twenty three people unconscious.
“Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, Imo state command, has ordered a full scale investigation into the incident with a view to unravel the misery behind the tragedy.”
