The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Friday reported an oil pipeline fire outbreak along the Osisioma axis near Aba Depot, Abia State, in the oil firm’s System 2E pipeline network.
The Abia commander of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Benito Eze, told journalists in Umuahia, the state capital, that 16 persons died from the pipeline fire.
Eze said 16 persons, including one woman, died in the explosion that occurred around 2.47 a.m. at Umuaduru Village in Umueze Autonomous Community.
He also said three others died in a separate domestic fire that occurred at about 3 a.m. in a private residence at Umuimo Village in the same local goverment.
NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu, confirmed fatalities and loss of properties in the ensuing inferno.
Ughamadu said the corporation’s safety experts, along with men of the Abia State Fire Service, had swung into action to contain the fire, adding that updates on the situation would be provided as events unfolded.
NNPC Group Managing Director, Maikanti Baru, expressed shock at the willful destruction of lives and property occasioned by the incident.
The GMD prayed that God reposes the souls of the innocent ones that perished in the incident, even as he warned members of the public against tempering with oil and gas facilities many of which he said were inflammable.
Baru called on host communities to create avenues to moderate criminal tendencies of a few bad eggs living among them.
