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Once corrupted oil sector now on fire |
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July 14, 2000
OVIRI-COURT, Nigeria (AP) - Officials pleaded with fearful survivors of a deadly pipeline blast in southern Nigeria to come out of hiding Thursday as firefighters doused burning pools of gasoline for a fourth day. So far, few of the 100 villagers believed injured have reported to hospitals and clinics, apparently fearing arrest in connection with Monday's explosion. At least 100 others were killed as people scavenged fuel from the ruptured gas pipeline. "This is no time for apportioning blame but a time to care," Niger State Gov. James Ibori said in a radio broadcast. The exact cause of the blast remains unclear, but state oil company officials blamed a fuel smuggling ring for puncturing the pipeline to siphon off gasoline. Many of the victims, mainly impoverished villagers and schoolchildren, had been gathered close to the pipe to collect the gushing fuel and sell it by the bucket along roads, witnesses said. The accident took place near the villages of Adeje and Oviri-Court, north of the port of Warri in the oil-rich Niger Delta. The pipeline was carrying gasoline from a refinery in Warri to northern Nigeria. Ibori said police were seeking leaders of the smuggling ring and would not punish villagers involved in the accident. Both villages were nearly deserted Thursday morning. The few who remained behind said the others had fled. In the past, Nigerian authorities have prosecuted and even threatened to shoot pipeline vandals on sight.
Many of the injured were being treated by traditional doctors elsewhere in the surrounding region, witnesses said. Dr. Oziga, a physician at a village hospital in nearby Mereje, said none of the injured turned up there. "We learned of four victims who disappeared and two of them apparently died," Oziga said. "One would not come to hospital even after my nurses went to appeal to the family." Villagers also whisked away many of the bodies, meaning a true death toll may never be known. Witnesses have seen at least 100 corpses and locals reports put the death toll at 250. On Thursday morning, firefighters sprayed chemical foam and water on the blaze, which damaged or destroyed many buildings within a 2-kilometer (1-mile) radius. Some bodies burned beyond recognition still lay in the field next to the inferno. The area was filled with the overpowering stench of gasoline and rotting flesh. The tragedy resembled a similar accident in nearby Jesse, where more than 700 people were killed in October 1998. Since then, the government has tried to educate villagers about the danger of "scooping," the illegal practice of scavenging fuel from pipelines. Stephen Edebia, a 14-year-old resident of Adeje, said Wednesday his brother was killed collecting fuel. "My mother had been telling him to stop the petrol business but he would not hear. The money he was making used to help us in the family. But now that he is dead that money is gone," Edebia said. While Ibori called on the national government to boost security and education efforts to prevent another disaster, a state petroleum company spokesman blamed the tragedy on villagers who he said cut open the pipe. The pipeline has been sabotaged seven times since January in exactly the same spot, said Edorah Agbah, adding that many poor villagers in Oviri-Court have large fuel tanks behind their huts to store the stolen fuel. Hundreds of cases of pipeline sabotage are reported each year in Nigeria. Some are carried out by militant activists trying to force the government and oil companies to give compensation to communities for land use and alleged pollution. In other cases, villagers collect the gushing fuel to make a crude mixture of oil and gasoline for generators and other motors. Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest oil exporter, accounting for about one-twelfth of the oil imported by the United State |
