Posted by By Sun News Publishing on
The Environmental Right Action/ Friend of the Earth (ERA/FoEN) has called on the Federal Government to embark on a comprehensive probe of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) to ascertain the degree of in-house complicity in illegal siphoning of petroleum products along the corporation's distribution network.
The Environmental Right Action/ Friend of the Earth (ERA/FoEN) has called on the Federal Government to embark on a comprehensive probe of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) to ascertain the degree of in-house complicity in illegal siphoning of petroleum products along the corporation's distribution network.
While reacting to the explosion from a ruptured PPMC pipeline in Abagbo Village in Lagos, ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Nnimmo Bassey regretted that serial pipeline explosions have brought ridicule on the country portraying Nigeria as a country that lacks the capacity to manage the distribution of petroleum products.
'The Abagbo explosion which occurred on Christmas day claimed over 40 lives. PPMC, the operator of the burst pipeline, is the products distribution arm of NNPC. This last explosion coming at exactly one year after the Abule Egba explosion which claimed over 1000 lives and less than one month after the Arepo Explosion which led to the death of a senior NNPC official is an embarrassment to the nation.
"What kind of signals are we sending to the international community? This last one happened at a location less than two kilometers from the Atlas Cove, yet NNPC officials did not detect the burst until the explosion," he said.
Aside the probe of PPMC, ERA recommends enforcement of integrity checks on pipelines, effective surveillance, prompt response mechanisms and community participation in decisions bordering on the security and safety of pipelines and eradication of poverty and solution to unending pipeline fires in the country.