No fewer than seven persons believed to be university students have died, possibly after inhaling fumes from a generator, having worked late into Monday night in a music studio in Nigeria’s oil-rich Bayelsa state.
The young men are said to have fallen asleep in the locked studio with the generator still running.
They are suspected to have suffocated from carbon monoxide emissions, according to Police Spokesperson, Musa Mohammed. However, they say investigations are ongoing.
Six bodies were discovered on Tuesday morning, while one of them, who was found unconscious, was rushed to a nearby hospital but later died, local media reported.
The police arrived and cordoned off the area after moving out the bodies in the Amarata area of Yenagoa – the Bayelsa state capital.
Many businesses and households in Nigeria rely on diesel- or petrol-powered generators due to lack of quality power supply.
They rely on backup generators to cover about 40% of their electricity needs, according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Residents of the area raised the alarm when they peeped through the window of the studio and saw the bodies sprawled on the floor.
The victims were undergraduates from the state-owned Niger Delta University (NDU) in Amassoma, who were involved in the music recording business to support their education.