Another Explosion at Gas Facility in Rivers

…Soku gas pipeline is safe, says community leaders

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

Rivers State has again reportedly witnessed another explosion at a gas facility located at the Soku axis of Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of the state.

THISDAY gathered that the explosion which occurred at midnight of March 23, hits the Soku gas pipeline operated by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) limited.

This is the third incident on oil facilities in the State in less than a week, with the first occurring in the Ogoni area and the second at the Oga/Egbama/Ndoni LGA.

These incidents were also cited by President Bola Tinubu in his nationwide broadcast on March 18, while declaring a six-month state of emergency in Rivers State. He also suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, Prof Ngozi Odu, and blamed the governor for not doing enough to mitigate the attacks on oil infrastructure after some youths issued threats in a viral video if the governor was impeached.

President Tinubu, who claimed that the state was witnessing a crisis, subsequently appointed Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas (Rtd) as Sole Administrator.

An environmentalist and the Executive Chairman of the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria), Dr Dumnamene Fyneface, confirmed the explosion through its youth volunteers’ network in the area.

A statement made available to journalists in Port Harcourt Sunday by Dr Fyneface, said “an explosion accompanied by fireballs was heard and seen in the sky from the facility area which is hard-to-reach and the fire is still ongoing as at the time of this report as shown in the short videos shared with the organization by the youth volunteers of YEAC-Nigeria”.

He said “the cause of the explosion is not yet known whether it’s caused by equipment failure, sabotage or attack on the facility”.

The advocacy centre however, demanded investigation into the latest incident in Soku and called on the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to carry out a joint investigation visit (JIV) to the area with a view of determining the cause of the incident and holding perpetrators to account in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the Soku community has denied that there was an explosion on the gas facility in the area.

The General Secretary of the community, Mr. Witness Alasia, in a statement described the alleged explosion as untrue, while urging the public to disregard the news as circulated in the social media.

He said “On behalf of the leadership of the Soku Kingdom, I write to debunk the falsehood escalating in all social media that there was an explosion in the Soku Gas Plant.

It is disheartening and worrisome that People will mischievously misinform the public with a baseless and untrue story. Soku Gas Plant is Safe and in a perfect working condition.

The Public should disregard this unguided and untrue report. Though there was a fire outbreak in one of the gas pipelines along Soku-Abua-Rumuji Right of way. The Cause of the explosion is unknown and the Company also has not come up with any useful information.

“We use this Medium to inform the public that Soku and her Satellite Communities are Safe and Calm”, Alasia added.