SUSPECTED crude oil thieves on Wednesday attempted to siphon products from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipelines at the Atlas Cove, an action that led to an explosion at the Akinbo Jetty area.
It was gathered that the vandals however left behind their boats and over 200 jerry cans when the pipeline valve exploded and fled in their bid to evade arrest.
Confirming the incident, the spokesman of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), South-West, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, said the fire was jointly put out by government agencies.
According to him, "Rescue efforts from NNPC and other specialised agencies put out the fire. The fire started around 1 a.m. but was put out by the NNPC special team.
"The fire did not start from the main pipeline rather the valves supplying the product was what exploded. The first batch of our team reached there around 7.30 a.m. and the fire was finally put out at the Akinbo Jetty of Atlas Cove around 10.48 a.m.
"Cooling and pegging process have commenced and it is not a barge but vandalism of NNPC pipeline against earlier information that a barge exploded. About 200 jerry cans of 50 liters as well as three burning boats of the vandals were recovered."
When contacted, the Command Information Officer (CINFO) Western Naval Command (WNC), Lieutenant Commander Jerry Omodara, confirmed the incident but stressed that there was no casualty as speculated.
He said: "The situation has been brought under control and I spoke with the Commander NNS Beecroft, Commodore Chris Ezekobe, he confirmed that he had already deployed some officers to the area to access the level of the explosion.
"Contrary to speculations, he confirmed that there was no casualty but at the moment, we are yet to identify the chief cause of the explosion but it happened around the police post area in Atlas Cove."
He added: "The fire started at about 4 a.m. and infer till about 10 a.m. and preliminary investigations revealed that vandals broke the pipeline valve to siphon the products when it exploded. The explosion aborted their attempt to steal some products and they disappeared before rescue team comprising of NEMA, Police, NEMA and other security agencies came.
The Guardian