Oyigbo pipeline explosion: Witnesses recount ordeal

Amaka Agbu, Port Harcourt

As the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, PPMC, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, struggles to ascertain the remote and immediate causes of last Saturday’s pipeline explosion at Kom kom community in Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State, eye witnesses have recounted the incident.

Recall that last Saturday an explosion occurred in the area killing 10 people. As at the time of this report search for more corpses was ongoing.

An eyewitness however said that at least 20 persons were burnt to death by the fire which raged for several hours following the explosion at the pipeline.

The witness said that trouble started when residents of Harmony Avenue in the area which is close to the pipeline went to scoop petrol when they heard that there was a spill on Friday evening.

He stated said those who went to scoop petrol including farmers and palm wine tappers lost their lives to the explosion.

“We heard that fuel spilled inside the swamp and a lot of people went there using rubber for fetching the fuel on top of water. All of a sudden, the place caught fire.

The people who died there, the ones we saw in the bush were about eleven. Already eleven corpses had already been removed,” he narrated.

Another witness recounted: “This morning boys were seen rushing there to fetch the spilled fuel. About 7.10 am we heard an explosion. There was fire everywhere.

When we reached there we couldn’t find anybody again. People who were tapping palm wine, people brewing local gin there, all of them were burnt.”

Yet another narrated: “The people that went to tap palm wine were also burnt along with their children.

They called me but I refused to go. They tried to convince me, that it was not thieving or oil bunkering but that the oil pipe broke. I refused.

“This morning as I was coming back from my work I saw people gathered there. I decided to see what was happening.

As I got there, I saw dead bodies all over the swamp. So I helped in bringing out the dead bodies,” he continued.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Harmony Avenue Tenants Association in the community, Mr. Godwin Okike, has recalled how he tried to stop the scooping of petrol from the pipeline before the explosion.

“I saw them going. I spoke to them, dissuading them from going. Many of them listened to me and went back. Others who were more interested in money went there and couldn’t come back.

Today as I’m talking to you, they are trying to recover some dead bodies. There are still so many dead bodies there now.

On the cause of the explosion, a private company engaged to manage the pipeline in Kom Kom community, said the pipeline was marked for maintenance before the incident occurred.

The executive director of operations, PH-Enugu of UTM Offshore Management, Mr. Kennedy Azunte, said that its workers had planned to weld the pipeline on that fateful day after visiting on Friday only to wake up to the news of the explosion while clarifying that the pipeline belonged to NNPC, and not Shell as speculated.

Mr. Azunte stated: “We have arranged to work on the pipeline in the morning, only to be alerted of the fire around 7am. We are now battling to put off the fire and maintain the line. After securing the line, then we will establish what caused the fire.”