Ebun Francis| The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Sunday confirmed that a gas explosion caused the blast which rocked Abule Ado area of Lagos State and killed over 15 persons.
The Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, Dr. Kennie Obateru, in a statement said the blast occurred after a truck hit some gas cylinders stacked in a gas processing plant located near the corporation’s System 2B pipeline right of way.
According to him, preliminary findings indicated that the impact of the explosion was huge that it led to the collapse of nearby houses and damaged some NNPC pipelines.
Earlier on Sunday, Ibrahim Farinloye, spokesman of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed that at least 15 bodies were recovered even as rescue operations are ongoing after explosion.
He said, ”we have gotten about 15 bodies recovered and there are reports of children and their principal being involved, but we cannot give the figures out now because there are many factors with revealing children involved in an accident, so we are keeping it for the safety of the children”.
”We are trying to rescue a child that the owner informed me, is trapped under the rubble, an excavator has gone in to move the rubbles”.
The NEMA spokesman explained that the cause of the explosion will be investigated by The Nigeria Police Anti-Bomb Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team.
”We are still on the emergency phase to put out the fire and all hands are on deck. Next, we will carry out investigations”, he added.
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