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Lagos pipeline fire victims to get mass burial
VICTIMS of last Thursday's oil pipeline explosion, which occurred at Imore Village near Ijegun area of Lagos may be given mass burial this week.
Police sources told The Guardian, that the identities of the dead victims could not be ascertained.
It was also learnt that relations may have refrained from coming forward to identify the victims out of the fear that they might be accused of being accomplices to economic crimes.
The victims were believed to have died while scooping petrol from a bust pipeline, which is reported to have been going on in the area for some time now.
It was learnt that the Lagos State government resolved to give them mass burial to decongest the state-run mortuary.
The disfigured bodies of the victims were at the weekend taken to the mortuary in four tipper lorries.
Security was tightened around the explosion site with armed policemen throughout the weekend, in line with the directive of the Inspector General (IG) of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun.
The IG directed the Lagos commissioner of police to strengthen security across the state especially at the pipelines.
A similar directive was sent to the western command of the port police at Apapa, Lagos, to deploy more Marine policemen who would be on a 24-hour patrol of jetties where oil pipelines are connected in the state.
Meanwhile, the Group Managing Director GMD of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Funso Kupolokun, has assured of constant fuel supplies despite the pipeline explosion.
Kupolokun allayed the fear during the official assessment visit with NNPC officials to the Imore village pipeline explosion in Lagos yesterday.
He said that enough supply had been pumped to Mosimi depot in Sagamu, Ogun State, before the incident, maintaining that the quantity would sustain demand for weeks until necessary repairs are effected to ensure normal pumping.
His words: "There is no need to worry in terms of fuel availability, because in Mosimi today, we have 75 million litres of fuel. In Ibadan, we have 75 million litres, and so we are fairly comfortable with availability until we are able to replace the damaged lines."
A pipeline explosion rocked the tiny community of Imore Village in Ijegun, near the Satellite Town in Lagos on Thursday last week claiming more than 50 lives. It is suspected that the pipeline, which pumps fuel products from the Atlas Cove in Lagos to Mosimi and Ibadan, was vandalised by the victims for economic benefits.
The Guardian learnt that fuel siphoning from the affected pipeline has been going on for a long time in the area to the knowledge of security operatives, including members of the task force employed by NNPC.
A source at the scene who spoke to The Guardian, explained that the illegal business which has been existing for months involved the inhabitants with the knowledge of the security operatives who compromised their responsibilities with monetary inducements.
Kupolokun while reacting to the allegation of connivance involving NNPC officials said: "If I was aware of it, I would have dealt with that, but I am not quite sure that that is the case."
The GMD, who was impressed by the ongoing effort to put out the fire raging for the fifth day running, said the quantity of fuel burnt by the fire could not be ascertained until today.
"We are not in a position to know how many litres of fuel that have been lost. But by the end of today (yesterday), the fire should be out, we have to wait for another 24 hours for the whole place to cool down, before we even plan to do anything."
Kupolokun, shocked at the high number of causalities said that NNPC was taken by surprise, despite sensitisation engagement in different programmes to educate people on the tragic consequences of vandalising oil pipelines.
Recalling similar incidents at Jesse in Delta State, Isikwuato in Abia State and Baruwa, Kupolokun expressed surprise that victims did not learn from these previous tragedies.
He said that N8.6 billion had so far been lost in vandalisation incidents in the past.
"We have been supporting different programmes to educate people on the tragedy that vandalisation could cause," he emphasised.
Describing the whole scenario as a big loss in terms of material and human resources, the NNPC helmsman stated that investigation was on to ascertain the cause and possibly, the culprits.
So far, no arrest has been made but Kupolokun said surveillance of the NNPC pipelines would be reinforced and intensified to check the spate of vandalisation.
He said that serious punishment awaited vandals caught in the act as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was at hand to prosecute the culprits.
He said the cases of vandalisation had reduced drastically from 909 in 2000 to 453 in 2004 owing to the measures put in place to check the menace such as task force and intensified sensitisation programmes.
Pinpointing two areas of Akute and Ejigbo in Lagos as notorious for pipeline vandalisation, Kupolokun said that preventive measures such as the engagement of the task force had paid off.
This similar measure he stressed was extended to the NNPC pipeline, and regretted the unfortunate Imore explosion.`****okay
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