About 30 persons believed to be pipeline vandals were burnt to death yesterday [Jan. 12] at Arepo off the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway in the latest attack by vandals on NNPC pipelines.
The fire which started at about 2am behind the community raged for much of yesterday. The police said it was sparked by an argument among the vandals over who should first siphon oil from a ruptured pipeline.
"It was in the heat of the argument that one of them accidentally released a bullet that led to several explosions", the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in-charge of the Special Task Force on Anti-Pipeline Vandalism, Mr. Friday Ibadin, said yesterday.
The explosions woke up many residents of the area and attracted the attention of the police with a team of policemen led by the sector commander, Lagos, DSP Onaghise Osayande, storming the scene and cordoned off the area to avert more danger.
Several other vandals were injured.
The police arrested six suspects including an injured vandal along with a medical doctor who was said to be taking him away for treatment.
The injured suspect, who gave his name as Reuben, said a lot of his colleagues were killed in the explosion.
Narrating how he got involved, he said: "I was in my house when Suleiman my friend called me that there was a job at Arepo creeks. He asked me to look for a canoe and come with as many gallons as I could carry.
"Shortly after I arrived I saw some people arguing while some where fighting before I heard a gunshot. The next thing was an explosion. I was lucky that I wasn't close to the ruptured pipeline. It was the heat of the fire that affected me. I managed to run to my boat where my mother was waiting. Iya Olabode called a doctor who was about taking me to the hospital when we were arrested by the police."
Asked about the number of vandals at the time of the fire outbreak, Reuben said: "There were so many of us, men and women. We were more than 50 persons over there and most of them are still inside that fire. Most of them are still in the creeks dying, please help them".
The medical doctor, (name withheld), said he simply acted according to his oath to protect life. He claimed that he was invited by his client, Iya Olabode, to attend to a patient in her house at Abule Oba, Ikorodu area of Lagos.
Meanwhile, scarcity of fuel looms in Lagos and Ogun States as the NNPC has stopped the flow of PMS through Arepo pipeline pending the repair of the ruptured pipeline.
