REHABILITATION work has started on the damaged NNPC Petroleum pipeline at the Journalists’ Estate, Arepo, Ogun State, near Lagos. Vanguard gathered that NNPC engineers arrived the site yesterday to begin work on the pipeline which burst on Friday. They did not complete the job last night.
Residents of the estate and construction workers woke up on Friday morning to a choking fume of petrol caused by a broken petroleum pipeline. Although the cause of the damage has not been ascertained, some people attributed it to rupture caused by old age.
Investigation by Vanguard revealed that petrol from the damaged pipeline had formed a big pond in the area, spreading through the construction sites.
Sources say that a red alert was sent by residents to the police who also cordoned of the area.
�As soon as we noticed the area covered with petroleum product from the burst pipeline, we sensed that some people could go there to scoop the fuel, we quickly contacted the police, the Ogun State government and NNPC who responded instantly�, a journalist resident said.
�The police from Ibafo command with NNPC security team cordoned off the area shortly after they were informed and subsequently commenced rehabilitation work on Sunday (yesterday),� he added.
Some of the journalists who spoke to Vanguard on Saturday expressed fear that the situation if not attended to immediately could degenerate into the Jesse kind of inferno which claimed the lives of many people.
Some of them, out of fear left the estate pending when the trouble would have been averted.
Another journalist, who lives close to the site of the leakage told Vanguard that the pool contained highly inflammable petrol, giving possibility of fire outbreak.
It should be recalled that the Lagos State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists acquired plots of land from the Ogun state government few years ago at Arepo, near Lagos which they developed individually.
While some of the journalists have completed the development of their plots; others are still at different stages of completion.