It’s An Oil Pipeline Explosion, Says PPMC

The Pipeline Products and Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC on Wednesday confirmed another fire caused by pipeline vandals at Ilado, a community on the Atlas Cove, correcting the earlier story that a vessel laden with petrol exploded.

Mr Nasir Imodagbe, Manager, Media Relations and External Affairs of PPMC told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the vandals broke the pipelines to siphon petroleum product.

Imodagbe said the fire incident at the high sea in Lagos was caused by a group of vandals who came with their canoe to siphon the product.

He said that the fire which moved through the pipeline toward the Atlas Cove Jetty, was put off by the officials who were on ground.

“We have shut the product network from Atlas Cove to allow repair of the damaged line immediately,” he said.

Imodagbe, however, assured Nigerians and Lagosians not to panic as adequate measures had been put in place to combat the menace.

“We are going to reopen the shut line immediately the repairs are effected today. The Ilado community area is being known for notorious pipeline vandalism,” Imodagbe said.

Some community leaders at Ilado village, who preferred to be anonymous, alleged that the security agencies had compromised with the vandals on the offshore area of the pipelines.

They recalled that in 2010, when the Atlas Cove was attacked, the Nigeria Police Force attached a Mobile Police Unit to keep surveillance over the place.

According to them, there is a high level special security squad at Ilado, yet vandals perpetuate illegal act.

The community leaders stressed the need for government to further review the activities of the security agencies in the village.

“The activities of the vandals, if allowed to continue will endanger the lives of residents of the community and tagged the community as the spotlight of oil pipeline vandalism,” one of the leaders said.

NAN recalls that vandalism of petroleum products pipeline at Ilado village had occurred about 10 times in the last two years.