LAGOS— AN early morning pipeline explosion yesterday rocked Imore village, a suburb of Lagos, claiming about 15 lives, all the victims yet to be identified. Imore lies between Satellite Town and Ijegun. The victims had been siphoning fuel from the vandalised portion of the pipeline which apparently caught fire after a generator powering the boat used by the victims unexpectedly exploded. Time was 2a.m.
The sound of the explosion terminated the sleep of residents of the area who did not know immediately what went amiss. Some of them remembering the January 27, 2002 explosion at the Ikeja Cantonment that forced scores to their graves ran for their lives.
Moments after the explosion, a police patrol team from the Satellite Town Division was said to have arrived the scene but could not make any arrest.
Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Emmanuel Ighodalo, who confirmed the incident on telephone at 11.30a.m. yesterday could not, however, give any figure on the casualties, saying: “I was informed around 3.00a.m. immediately the explosion took place because somebody called me then. But I cannot tell you now whether anybody died or not, or if there is any arrest made.
“Meanwhile, the DPO, I'm sure, is at the command by now because we shall be having CP’s briefing. So, after the briefing I should be able to tell you what the situation is.”
Only last week, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Israel Ajao, paraded eight suspects arrested while allegedly attempting to siphon petroleum products illegally in the area. Items recovered from them included generators, rubber hose, hammers, cutlasses and other objects used for the illegal act.
Officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) were also at the scene yesterday battling to put out the fire.
One of the villagers who simply identified herself as Iya Taye, said they were jolted from sleep at about 2a.m. by the blast. "At first we did not know what it was but when we heard people running and asking others to run for their dear lives that there was an explosion similar to that of Ikeja bomb blast. My husband immediately carried my children and we ran out, until we got to a safer place, where we were made to understand that it was a pipeline close to us that exploded.”
Another resident of the area called Nike, said: “We were all fast asleep when suddenly we were jolted from sleep by a loud sound. Not quite long after, somebody started screaming fire, fire. Immediately, the whole family rushed out of our room and made for nowhere in particular, as everybody packed his luggage.
“As we were running for our dear lives, we noticed that the fire was at a nearby Island around Ijegun New Site, between Navy Town and Satellite Town."
Residents said people openly siphoned petroleum products from pipeline in the area. Over 1000 people died in a similar pipeline explosion at Jesse, Delta State, a few years back.
