Several people were said to have sustained injuries in an early morning fire incident at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) facility at Akinbo Jetty, Ilado area, not too far from the Atlas Cove. It was gathered that the incident occurred while vandals were scooping oil from a pipeline.
Though, villagers alleged that some of the vandals died in the inferno which started at about 1am, both the Naval authorities and officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said nobody died in the incident.
A witness alleged that the fire started when some suspected pipelines vandals attempted to siphon products from the NNPC pipelines in the area.
The source said the vandals arrived the scene at about mid night in three boats filled with plastic jerry cans to scoop petroleum product from an exposed pipeline at Ilado, a riverine community.
“It was during the scooping that the incident occurred. Some of the vandals died while a large number of them sustained injuries,” the witness added.
Our correspondent learnt that the suspects left behind their boats and over 200 jerry cans.
Confirming the incident, spokesperson, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), South-west, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, said, “Rescue efforts from NNPC and other specialised agencies put out the fire. The fire started around 1am but was put out by the NNPC special team. The fire did not start from the main pipeline, rather the valves supplying the product was what exploded. The first batch of our team reached there around 7.30am and the fire was finally put out at 10.48 am. Cooling and pegging process have commenced and it is not a barge but vandalism of NNPC pipeline against earlier information that a barge exploded. About 200 jerry cans of 50 litres were recovered as well as three burning boats.”
daily trust
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