Fire-fighters from the National Emergency Management Agency and the Lagos State Fire Service have successfully put out the inferno at Ijegun pipeline, Ijagemo, Lagos after battling the fire for hours.
The fire service, police, and other emergency responders are turning people away from the scene and calling for calm while appealing to residents to desist from making fire at present.
The fire suspected to have started as a result of vandals who break up petroleum pipeline to steal products caused pandemonium in the community leading to the destruction of properties. Residents suspect there may be causalities but government officials are yet to make the determination.
Ibrahim Farinloye, spokesperson for NEMA, South West zone, in a release said the agency had alerted the NNPC management to the development.
“NEMA has also called on the safety unit of the corporation to immediately shut down further supplies through the pipeline in order to suffocate the fire.
“It is noted that vandals are responsible for the incident and some of them are affected in the inferno.
“Security agencies have cordoned off the area to restrict access of undesirable elements. People should remain calm,” he added.
ISAAC ANYAOGU
Isaac Anyaogu is an Assistant editor and head of the energy and environment desk. He is an award-winning journalist who has written hundreds of reports on Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, energy and environmental policies, regulation and climate change impacts in Africa. He was part of a journalist team that investigated lead acid pollution by an Indian recycler in Nigeria and won the international prize - Fetisov Journalism award in 2020.
Mr Anyaogu joined BusinessDay in January 2016 as a multimedia content producer on the energy desk and rose to head the desk in October 2020 after several ground breaking stories and multiple award wining stories. His reporting covers start-ups, companies and markets, financing and regulatory policies in the power sector, oil and gas, renewable energy and environmental sectors
He has covered the Niger Delta crises, and corruption in NIgeria’s petroleum product imports.
He left the Audit and Consulting firm, OR&C Consultants in 2015 after three years to write for BusinessDay and his background working with financial statements, audit reports and tax consulting assignments significantly benefited his reporting.
Mr Anyaogu studied mass communications and Media Studies and has attended several training programmes in Ghana, South Africa and the United States
