The Bayelsa State government, on Wednesday said that it would wield the big stick against Agip oil company if it failed to release the autopsy reports and remains of victims of the pipeline explosion which occurred at its Azuzuama oil field recently.

The government accused the oil firm of deliberating delaying the release of the relevant documents needed by the state government to assist the families of the bereaved to bury their loved ones.

The state commissioner for environment, Inirio Willis, in an interview said the government would take punitive measures against the company if it failed to comply with its request for the release of the death certificates of the victims.

He claimed that the refusal of the firm to do the needful had frustrated the plans of the various families to bury the victims.

“The managing director of Agip has refused to release the autopsy report, death certificate and collection cards for our staff’s remains, several weeks on. We find this to be grossly indecent and an aggravation of the Azuzuama tragedy that we and the families are still grappling with. The family continues to be in suspense and has had to change burial plans because of this,” Willis said

He said the action of the company was seen as a provocative act by the state government and it would react accordingly.

When approached for a reaction to the allegations, the public affairs manager of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, Dan Jumbo declined comments.

It would be recalled 14 people died in a pipeline explosion which occurred on July 9, 2015 at Agip’s oil fields in Azuzuama in Southern Ijaw local government area in Bayelsa.

Two regulatory officials from Bayelsa Ministry of Environment and National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, also died in the incident.

Officials of NAOC, representatives of the host community and Bayelsa ministry of Environment were said to have been investigating the cause of a recent oil spill in the area when the blast occurred