Host of young men who double as specialist vandals of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) oil pipelines met their waterloo Monday night, when a pipeline they vandalised at the Ije-Ododo area of Ijegun on the outskirts of Lagos exploded, roasting them all beyond recognition.
Speaking with Huhuonline.com, residents of the area disclosed that they had been living in fear of the vandals, who are in the habit of laying siege on the community to scoop Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol.
The vandals, numbering between 25 and 30, had stormed the area that night and, as usual, started shooting into the air to announce their arrival and scare everyone in the community.
It was also learnt that in order to avoid being caught, they often entered the community through the FESTAC area of the state in canoes. This Monday, they came in three canoes loaded with cans. They must have filled some of the cans before the explosion occurred, as eye witnesses said they were roasted with the cans and the canoes.
“Suddenly, we heard a very loud bang as if a bomb had exploded. Most of us could not leave our houses while the few courageous residents of the area who were still outside at the time of the incident ran into other people’s houses to save themselves from any supposed attack,” Jimoh Olatayo, a resident of the area explained to Huhuonline.com on Tuesday.
“Some of us had thought that the vandals were clashing with the Police. We became suspicious when we did not hear sounds of gunshots after that, but we instead saw very bright rays from the fire that engulfed the entire place. That was when we realised that the worst had happened to them.”
At the time our correspondent got to the scene, the fire was still raging, resulting in heavy smoke.
Residents of the area had reported activities of the vandals to the Police several times, but with the refusal of the law enforcement agents to act and save the community of the danger of being burnt in the case of fire, the residents had resigned to fate.
“We also suspected connivance between the Police and these oil pipeline vandals. At a time, it was resolved that the community should stop informing the security agents so that information about us would not be divulged to the vandals,” said Adepitan Adebayo, another resident.
As at Tuesday evening, residents of the area were seen in a gathering close to the scene, discussing the explosion and blaming the security operatives for their poor response.
Those whose houses are close to the scene were seen moving their properties out, as there were no Fire Service officials in sight.
Officials of the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) who were present told Huhuonline.com that they got wind of the incident in the night of Monday but could not come until Tuesday morning. They also said there was nothing they could do until the fire was put out.
They, however, cordoned off the area and prevented people from going close to the scene.
One of the officials, who spoke anonymously because he was not in a position to make official comments, said they had contacted NNPC and that the flow of petrol through the pipeline would be stopped for the fire to abate.
A similar incident that occurred recently in the Arepo area of Ogun State is still reported to have resulted in the shortage of fuel supply to Lagos and environs, and the vandalised pipeline area is yet to be fixed by the NNPC.
