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BENIN—A FRESH pipeline explosion, this time in Edo State, claimed five lives, yesterday, just 24 hours after a suspected terror gang blew up a Shell pipeline at Agba Okwan Asarama in the Andoni local government area of Rivers State and another pipeline belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) caught fire in Delta State.
The death toll in the Rivers State explosion rose to 11 yesterday from eight while Shell struggled to put out the fire.
Yesterday’s explosion, at Ehor, in the Uhunmwode local government of Edo State, Vanguard gathered, was caused by vandalisation to the pipeline by people suspected to be illegal bunkerers. The explosion occurred at about noon. The victims were mainly youths of the community.
A tanker and equipment believed to belong to the bunkerers also got burnt.
Residents of Ehor told Vanguard that the bunkerers by-passed the security surveillance mounted by armed policemen at a checkpoint along the pipeline route and capitalised on alleged laxity of the policemen said to have mounted an illegal road block on the expressway.
The bunkerers were alleged to have cut through the pipe but a spark ignited a fire that caused the explosion. Many of the villagers were reported to have attempted to rush to the scene following the multiple explosions created, leading to many vacating their homes in fear.
Chairman of the local government, Mr Ehosa Ogbemudia, was reported to have stopped them. Vanguard, however, gathered that the Divisional Police Officer of the Command, yesterday, dispatched an urgent signal to the state headquarters of the Police Force to assist in the deployment of a rescue team and emergency fire service team to the area.
It was gathered that the fire fighters contacted claimed to lack equipment to fight a fire of that magnitude, while efforts were still on to contact the management of the NNPC. Attempt to contact the Chairman of the council, Mr Ogbemudia and the Chief Press Secretary to the council, Mr Nosa Adun, yesterday failed.
Spokesman for the State Police Command, Mr Peter Ogboi, could not confirm the incident, claiming he had not been officially briefed by the Police Division in Ehor. A senior Police source, however, confirmed that the incident was reported to the Police Headquarters around 2.30p.m. yesterday but the team dispatched to the scene was yet to return with details of the incident.
Meanwhile, death toll in the Shell pipeline explosion rose to 11 from eight yesterday as the company struggled to put out the fire that engulfed its pipeline.
“The fire is still on. We are trying to determine the extent of the fire. We are organising a flight today (yesterday) to oversee the situation, the extent of fire,” the spokesman said under the cover of anonymity.
The fire, apparently caused by a dynamite attack, according to an initial probe, cut production and this has not resumed. “We have not resumed operations for now. It is impossible. After fighting the fire, we will have to repair the pipeline and see what again need to be repaired before we can resume operations,” he said.
Shell announced Tuesday that unknown persons attacked its pipeline near Port Harcourt, resulting in a major spill and fire and slashing production by 170,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, accounting for about seven per cent of Nigeria’s total crude export.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that the fire might have been caused by a dynamite attack carried out by unknown persons. To help curb the fire, Shell shut its production from Diebu Creek and Nun River fields as well as all land area facilities except Rumuekpe. Some 170,000 bpd net oil have been deferred,” the company said in a statement.
Shell officials, yesterday, still declined to comment on whether lives were lost in the explosion which affected badly nearby communities. “The number of affected communities is yet to be determined but we understand that some nearby settlements may have been impacted. We have mobilised a medical team that is now on standby in Port Harcourt,” the Shell text said.
Chairman of the Agba Okwan Asarama Community Development Committee, Chief Oraka Benjamin, has called on the state government and the SPDC “to do something urgently to put out the fire.” Naval personnel and SPDC officials had been mobilised to assess the extent of damage.
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