How NNPC's Negligence Means Their System 2B Pipelines Are Killing Nigerians

A critical section of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) System 2B pipeline, which starts from Atlas Cove in Lagos State, up through Soba in Kaduna State, to the rest of Nigeria is being failed to care for by the West African country's state-owned oil firm.

AllNews established that the pipelines at Oke-Odo, in Alimosho Local Government Area (LGA) operated by the NNPC, are not in true compliance with safety and regulatory guidelines.

The pipelines on the unsurfaced road on the entire stretch of Pipeline Junction, Oke-Odo, are exposed due to evident soil erosion.

The 2B System pumps petrol, diesel, and kerosene.

A dip in the land is clearly noticed where rainwater has washed out some of the road's surface exposing the NNPC pipeline at Pipeline Junction, Oke-Odo

Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company Limited (NPSC)​, a subsidiary of the NNPC is failing in its "sole responsibility" to maintain industry standard with regards to the maintaining of the integrity of the pipeline.

Apart from the fact that men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) are stationed a few metres away, the pipelines at Oke-Odo are inadequately protected.

More appalling is the fact that the pipelines at Oke-Odo in Alimosho have been exposed for years, with the NNPC continually turning blind eye to the danger.

Industry regulations require the NNPC to protect the pipeline from washouts.

A resident, Saliu Adetona who spoke to this reporter bemoaned: "This is death staring at us. Yet the enterprise saddled with protecting these pipelines from washouts is not concerned.

"The officials don't live among us anyway, they reside at Banana Island, so they care less.

"Who knows if some of these pipelines are leaking?

"Any slight ignition, we are trouble!

"Little children sit naively on these pipelines to play."

AllNews found out a file of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) where it is plainly stipulated that: "Special precautions shall be taken to protect the pipeline from washouts, unstable soil, landslides or other hazards."

With the state of pipelines sighted by AllNews, has the NNPC lived up to its billing?

Despite these regulations and the fact that fuel lines run through densely-populated neighbourhoods, the NNPC did not adequately address the erosion of the road surface and did not maintain the integrity of these pipelines at Oke-Odo town.

In at least the past 14 years, pipelines in  Alimosho Local Government, which is the largest local government in Lagos and environ have been recording lethal explosions.

Explosions on this same section of pipeline have claimed the lives of residents of Lagos.

On 26 December 2006, hundreds of people were killed at Abule Egba.

On July 4, 2019, in Ijegun, at least two people died and vehicles destroyed.

The same figure of lives was lost on December 5, 2019, in Idimu.

Five people died on January 19, 2020, at Oke-Odo, Abule Egba.

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Whatever the cause, these incidences expose at an appalling rate the risk that these NNPC pipelines carry into so many neighbourhoods of the city.

The NNPC knew that but they decided to be lackadaisical.

AllNews reached the NNPC to put its discovery to them, but the phone number displayed on their official website was repeatedly unreachable as of Monday morning.