The Ebonyi State Police Command has said that a gas explosion claimed the lives of the younger sister to one of Ngeria’s singer, Patoranking, and her husband in Abakaliki.
According to the police, contrary to widespread information that the victims, Mr and Mrs George Onuabuchi in Abakaliki, died in an explosion from an inverter battery, the couple were killed by a gas explosion.
The Deputy Superintendent of Police and spokesperson for the Command, Joshua Ukandu, said that a preliminary investigation conducted by the police into the incident which happened on August 25 indicated that their death was caused by a gas explosion.
He said the incident occurred on a Wednesday in the Waterworks area of Abakaliki on August 25 after which the residents alerted the police. However , before the police arrived at the scene,the couple had been taken to the hospital.
Ukandu said while the wife, Chioma, died in August, the husband gave up in September.
He however said that the police could not get details of how the gas explosion occured as the couple could not narrate the incident before they died
“There aren’t many details available, as the victims did not survive to share their account of the event. The cause of death was a gas explosion, not an inverter explosion,” he said.
The families of the deceased have described the death of the couple ‘as a tragic loss for the family.
“They were a young couple. They had only one child, a three-year-old son. They’re gone,” a relative said.