TEN days after the fuel pipeline fire that claimed over 500 lives in the rural areas of Lagos, the state government is considering taking legal action against those it considers responsible, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Federal Government.
Besides a call for an independent study into the state of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) pipelines in the state, the state government is equally considering legal action against the Federal Government over the poor condition of oil facilities. It said the judicial option was a viable one because its repeated requests for the repair of damaged equipment had been ignored by the Federal Government and its agencies.
Reacting to the Ilado community tragic incident, which occurred on May 12, 2006, the Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, speaking on behalf of the state government, said at the weekend that Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu on several occasions both formally and informally, had written letters to the Presidency and the NNPC on the deplorable state of the oil pipelines without any acknowledgement by the Federal Government.
“In 2005, no less than three letters of complaints were forwarded to [the] different agencies of Federal Government concerned. The governor also last year discussed with Mr. Funso Kupolokun, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, suggesting a better way to protect the pipelines through encasement,” Bello said, adding that the only action the state government could take to alert the Federal Government to its responsibilities was approaching the courts for pronouncements on the matter.
He said that his ministry had drawn the attention of the NNPC to the poor state of pipelines at Agbado-Oke Odo, Baruwa, Ipaja, Uwa, Ilashe village, Imoru, Ilaje and the most recent case at Ilado without any positive action.
The commissioner said that to show the displeasure of Lagos to the condition of the pipelines, the state House of Assembly had invited officials of NNPC, and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to discuss ways to curb the incessant pipeline vandalisation and leakages.
Bello said a seven-man ad-hoc committee, assembled to look into the recent pipeline leakage at Agbado-Oke-Odo, visited many places in the Lagos metropol and its findings that the network of pipelines and facilities was in a very bad state.
Bello said that the committee’s shocking findings prompted Tinubu to write a memo on April 7, 2006 to the President, with copies sent to the NNPC boss and the Minister of the Environment, informing him about the bad state of NNPC pipelines and other installations in the state.
The letter read in part: “Your Excellency, apart from bringing this development to your knowledge, a fundamental reason for my letter is to request you to kindly focus on how to eliminate [these] pipeline ruptures. You will agree with me that the Lagos State government had shown care and responsiveness to its people by promptly communicating to the appropriate quarters about the looming dangers occasioned by the inefficiency of NNPC officials over facilities where they make millions of dollars without taking appropriate steps to maintain them.
“In view of the foregoing, therefore, the state government is urgently calling on the management of NNPC/PPMC and the Minister of Environment to immediately carry out a comprehensive survey to determine the integrity of all pipelines in the state and ascertain their present conditions with a view to replacing or repairing them.”
The commissioner on behalf of the governor expressed condolences to the families of the victims of the tragic incident, and prayed that the Almighty God grant them the courage to bear the irreparable losses.
There have been at least three reported cases of fuel pipeline explosions in Lagos State in the last four years, which resulted in the loss of several lives. The latest on May 12 recorded the highest number of casualties, with over 500 people losing their lives