Senate probes Abia pipeline inferno, urges compensation

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi and Musa Adamu

Sequel to the inferno which resulted from pipeline explosion in Abia state, the Senate has directed its committees on Petroleum (Downstream) and Police Affairs to investigate the last Friday’s inferno that resulted in the death of over 150 people in some affected communities in State.
The committees were mandated to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the inferno and recommend the appropriate compensations to be given to the families of the victims.
Red chamber also urged the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to assist the families affected with relief materials, even as it called on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to commence immediate repairs on the pipeline leakages.
The resolutions were after senate debate on a motion moved by Senator Theodore Orji (PDP Abia Central) by which he called the attention of the senate to the fire incidence.
In his lead debate on the motion, senator Orji, who was former governor of Abia state, alleged that the NNPC and some officers of the Nigeria Police are complicit in the pipeline explosion.
He said that it was due to the negligence of duty on the part of NNPC, unnecessary love of money and compromise by operatives of the Nigeria Police, that resulted in the tragedy.
On the day the inferno took place, he said, “the policemen drafted to prevent people from scooping fuel went and compromised by charging the villagers N1,000 to N2,000 each in order to be allowed to scoop fuel.
He said many people that sustained various degrees of injuries were still in the hospitals receiving treatment at different locations in the state.