No Cause for Alarm over Lagos Pipeline Leak, Says NNPC

No Cause for Alarm over Lagos Pipeline Leak, Says NNPC

By Emmanuel Addeh

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday assured of safety around the scene of a gas pipeline rupture along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

A press release by the NNPC spokesperson, Dr. Kennie Obateru, in Abuja, stated that the pipeline break which was caused by a construction company carrying out excavation work in the area resulted in gas leakage.

He noted that the leakage was promptly contained through the efforts of NNPC team, officials from the Lagos state government and other stakeholders.

“The impacted section of the pipeline has been isolated and the pipeline depressurized such that it poses no danger to the public,” the statement quoted the Managing Director of the Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC), a subsidiary of NNPC, Mr. Faruk Usman, was quoted as saying.

“The corporation urges members of the public to go about their duties normally as all safety measures have been put in place to avert any danger. Repair work has commenced with a view to restoring gas supply as soon as possible,” NNPC said.

Earlier in the day, there had been reports of a gas pipeline leak around Arepo, Magboro, which led to traffic congestion on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

The incident, reportedly occurred around 9:30am and caused panic among residents of the area during the leak which occurred as a result of excavation works being carried out on the Lagos-Ibadan axis by Julius Berger.

Commander, Lagos-Ibadan-Egbeda corridor of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Kehinde Hamzat, in a statement confirmed that there was a case of pipeline leak around Magboro area.

“We have a case of gas pipeline explosion around Punch Newspaper, Magboro. The pipeline got burst while men of Julius Berger, the construction company working on Lagos-Ibadan expressway were excavating a surface for worksite,” he was quoted as saying.

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