‘Operational error, not sabotage caused pipeline explosion in Oyigbo, R’State’
Contrary to earlier speculation that the pipeline explosion that claimed eight lives Saturday in Oyigbo, near Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital was caused by vandalism or sabotage, a top official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Sunday traced it to operational error.
The official working for the Petroleum Pipeline Product Marketing Company (PPPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC, who pleaded anonymity, confided in Business Hilights in a telephone call that “We can for now; say the explosion is out of operational error as it occurred at a time massive maintenance work on the pipeline was ongoing”.
Though our correspondent reports that death toll may rise as scores were before the explosion, seen scooping the product ahead of the explosion.
Additional details suggest more deaths as the terrain was a difficult one that could not allow for easy escape of trespassers’.
