- For the umpteenth time, another explosion on Wednesday rocked one of the pipelines of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) at the Arepo area of Ogun State and reportedly killed several pipeline vandals.
- The pipeline carries oil products to Lagos and the southwest region.
- Nairametrics gathered from sources that one of the camps had first stormed the pipeline in order to tamper with the valves and then siphon fuel into their waiting jerry cans.
- In the process of siphoning the product, the other camp got to the scene to perpetuate the same act, but ran into the first group.
- A supremacy tussle over who should steal petrol from the pipeline area then ensued and when dialogue could not solve the problem, they resorted to violence.
- The country’s emergency response agency, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said that blast took place on the oil products pipeline near the town of Arepo on the edge of Lagos state. NEMA said the explosion was the result of a clash between groups of vandals.
“The situation is still tense, we can’t go in there to check but there has been loss of life,” Onimode Bandele, the NEMA head for the southwestern region, said.
NNPC has been alerted about the explosion and they have immediately shut down the supply valve to stop feeding the fire.
- The latest incident occurred barely a month after vandals struck in the area and six weeks after vandals ambushed and shot in cold blood five policemen deployed to secure the area.
