Rivers Pipeline Explosion: NOSDRA Orders Clean Up Of Site …As probe indicts police

The Nigeria Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) has ordered for an immediate clean-up of the site of the pipeline explosion in Komkom Community, Oyigbo Local Government Area, Rivers State, to enable restoration of the environment.
Head of NOSDRA in Port Harcourt, Cyrus Nkangwung who disclosed this to newsmen in Port Harcourt said the decision followed a Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) to investigate the cause of the pipeline fire.
Nkangwung said that about 16, 000 liters of petrol was spilled, while over 21, 000 hectares of land was impacted during the incident which claims over 40 lives.
He further said that investigation revealed that the explosion was caused by oil thieves who installed a valve to divert petrol to their tank farms.
The NOSDRA boss in Port Harcourt said, “At the end of the investigation we discovered that the cause of spill is sabotage. A two inch pipe was discovered to be on top of the pipeline. The centre of the pipe by a third party.
“What the team agreed was that due to pressure from the Premium Motoring Spirit (PMS) that was passing through the line, the installed valve, the two failed.
“That was what caused the spill into the environment. Because after the investigation 200 barrels of the PMS was spilled into the environment which is about 15, 900 liters and the area of impact is twenty point seventy five hectares.” He said investigation also revealed that the explosion was triggered off by a gunshot from a policeman which was aimed at dispelling the crowd from scooping the spilled product. “People started scooping until a point where the fire incident occurred. What we gathered because we were not there, from sources in the community it was due to a bullet from the police repelling people that cause the fire.
“The second source was that maybe somebody was holding a phone and as he called the thing exploded. But I think most of the Security report suggests the gunshot as the cause”, he said.

Dennis Naku