Pipeline sabotage caused Ijegun oil spill –NNPC

    
The oil spill in Ijegun, a suburb of Lagos, has been attributed to the activities of pipeline vandals, who hacked into a product pipeline in the area, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and its midstream operator, Pipeline and Products Marketing Company, have said.

According to the corporation, the Ijegun area has always been notorious for the activities of oil thieves, who had incessantly hacked into pipelines with the aim of stealing products.

The acting Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Dr. Omar Ibrahim, who made this clarification in a statement on Tuesday, said the corporation’s pipelines were always sabotaged in the area.

He said, “We wish to acknowledge oil spill from our pipeline at the Ijegun area in Lagos and to state that the unfortunate incident is a result of pipeline sabotage by people suspected to be oil thieves.

“Lately, we have been experiencing a rise in the incidents of pipeline vandalism on the Ijegun section of our pipeline and doing our best to fix them as soon as they are noticed. In this month alone, we have located and fixed 73 ruptured points on that Mosimi–Ijegun–Atlas Cove line.”

Ibrahim observed that the entire stretch of that pipeline was replaced in 2010, ruling out the possibility that the rupture might have been as a result of the age of the pipeline.

He said PPMC engineers had since been mobilised to the area to contain the spill, locate and fix the ruptured points.

The spokesperson said, “Despite the difficult nature of the terrain, our engineers are working relentlessly to fix the damaged line. They are doing everything to contain the spill and stop it from spreading to cause more environmental damage. We therefore call on members of the public not to go near the area for safety reasons.”