NINETEEN persons have been confirmed dead in a fire outbreak at a vandalised Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipeline between Kaurani and Wapa villages of Mayo Belwa Council, Adamawa State. They were reportedly scooping fuel when the incident occurred last Sunday.
An entire family of six, comprising a man, his two wives and three children were among those who died in the inferno.
District Head of Kaurani, Mallam Jauro, who conducted the Adamawa State Deputy Governor, Bello Tukur, round the site of the incident, said that scooping of petroleum products had been going on in the area for sometime. The illegal activities of the villagers, he said, had been reported to the council authorities.
According to Jauro, the fire outbreak occurred when one of the vandals allegedly mistakenly failed to put out his cigarette before going near the site of the pipeline.
He pointed out that the activity thrived in the night. The monarch said the vandals were usually armed in order to scare away villagers whom he said had been preventing them from carrying out their illicit business.
The council chairman, Mr. Stephen Albert, stated that the activities of the vandals had earlier been reported to such security agencies as the Nigeria Civil Defence and Security Corps (NCDSC) and the Nigeria Police, adding that the vandals mounted road blocks around the site to frustrate attempts by the council’s vigilance group from guarding the area.
Tukur, who had directed the burial of the burnt bodies to avoid the outbreak of an epidemic, also urged the NCDSC to intensify its anti-vandalisation efforts on NNPC pipelines in the state.
He warned that government would no longer tolerate any illegal acts from any group of persons who destroy government property for selfish interest.
The Adamawa Command of the NCDSC last month arrested over 22 pipeline vandals in the same local council where the recent disaster occurred.