The bodies of four suspected vandals
were found at the scene of Saturday’s pipeline explosion at Arepo, Ogun State
on Sunday.
The bodies, which were found in the
swamp around the explosion site, had little sign of burns.
Even though the fire had reduced when
our correspondents got to the scene on Sunday, emergency workers said the
situation was still precarious as there was need to completely put out the
fire.
Spokesperson of the National
Emergency Management Agency, Ibrahim Farinloye, said evacuation of the bodies
would begin later on Sunday.
He said, “Our assessment show that
more bodies will still be inside the swamp. This is why we cannot give a
specific number of casualties at the moment.
“Two of the bodies found seemed to
have floated up from the water. It is likely that more bodies may float later.
But we will start the recovery of the bodies found as soon as Red Cross
officials and medical team of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
arrive.”
Farinloye said there was a technique
that could be applied to make the bodies of other casualties that had sunk in
the water to float.
He, however, explained that it was
necessary for the state in which the pipelines were domiciled to contribute to
tackling the menace of vandalism “instead of shifting blames.”
“The state is expected to mobilise
traditional institutions and residents, who know the terrain to assist in
intelligence gathering,” he said.
Deputy Manager, NNPC, in charge of
Pipeline Rights of Way, Mr. Obinna Otuu, explained at the scene that the repair
of the damage on the pipeline would take less than a day.
“Fuel supply through the damaged
point has been shut off since Saturday, but the repairs will be concluded
before tomorrow (Monday). So, there won’t be any fuel scarcity,” he said.
Otuu, who is in charge of all
pipelines in the South-West, said fuel marketers might start hoarding fuel to
create scarcity if the pipeline was not repaired on time.
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