BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME, Port Harcourt

Twenty four hours after the explosion at a creek close to the NNPC jetty in Okrika, headquarters of Okrika local government area in Rivers State nobody has been able to say with certainty how many persons perished in the inferno.

While some community folks put the figure at about 10, others said the dead would not be more than seven. Owner of the facility where the explosion occurred, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, said it was likely that some of the vandals may have lost their lives in the inferno.

The explosion occurred a creek close to the NNPC’s jetty in Okrika at about 1am on Sunday. Besides those that perished in the sad incident, Vanguard Metro, VM, gathered that several others sustained various degree of burns.

Chairman of the Local Government, Mr Tamuno Williams, who spoke to newsmen, said the casualties were rushed to undisclosed hospitals in the state. He further blamed the ugly development on illegal siphoning of crude oil from NNPC facilities in the area by illegal oil thieves.

Continuing, Mr Williams said it would be difficult to tie a figure to the number of casualties because of the terrain. While appealing to the NNPC to protect its facilities in the area from attack by vandals, the Chairman said the government had continued to put measures in place to discourage acts of illegal siphoning of oil in the area.

“The number of casualties cannot be properly ascertained for now due to the nature of the terrain where the incident happened and the level of security within and around the NNPC Jetty.

The fire incident was as a result of oil thieves who were siphoning oil from NNPC pipelines.

Those who survived were said to have been severely burnt. A lot of things are shrouded in secrecy. We have seen the fire but the NNPC have not given us permission to go in and verify the enormity of the damage. The security there is intensive, yet no NNPC staff wants to speak with us,” he said.

Continuing, the Chairman said: “Since they are not ready to go, we chose to go there ourselves. There are, indeed, casualties but the number we cannot really confirm. We have been to the creek and we saw the pipelines connection.”

The Council boss also passed a portion of the blame on the NNPC. According to him, the obsolete nature of its equipment was largely responsible for the sad incident.

“From what we saw, there is negligence on the part of the NNPC in the maintenance of their equipment. Their equipment and pipes are in a state of disrepair. NNPC should take time to invest in the maintenance of their equipment,” the Council Chairman observed.

Meantime, the NNPC said the development did not disrupt its operations and that no member of its staff was involved in the act.

Executive Director, Services of NNPC, Mr. Ralph Ugwu who spoke to news men on the issue said it was disturbing that the Chairman of the Council would allege that facilities of the oil giant in the area were obsolete.

“What I want to confirm to you is that our jetty operations are up and running. Our refineries are also up and running. The incident has no impact on our operations whatsoever and on our own side as NNPC, there is no casualty.

The incident has no impact on our refining operations or on our jetty operations. I don’t want to join issues with whoever is accusing who; whether it is the PPMC or vandals because I don’t want to say what I don’t know.

The truth is that nemesis caught up with people that came to steal our product. Their boat exploded. I don’t know about the number of people that died, but on our own side, we have no casualty and our operations are going on smoothly,” he said.

Community sources who spoke condition of anonymity blamed some officials of the NNPC for the ugly incident. They said some persons had allegedly come to lift crude from the facility and as soon as they left, some youths allegedly went in flying boats to also help themselves.

VM gathered that the crude burst into flames killing some persons. This followed an alleged spark on the engine of one of the flying boats used by the oil thieves. “The engine of the speed boat was not covered so there was a spark that resulted in the fire. You know crude is highly inflammable,” a source said. The sources said some persons may have been burnt to death in the sea. They called on the government to investigate staff of NNPC and security men deployed to protect oil facilities in the area.

Another community source called on the Federal Government to investigate the role of security men deployed to police oil facilities in the area and some staff of the NNPC. The source argued that it would not be possible for vandals to access oil facilities in the area without conniving with the security men and some staff of the NNPC.

“There has always been connivance among the vandals, security men and staff of the NNPC,” the source maintained.

When contacted, the state Police Command confirmed the fire incident, saying that it could have been caused by the activities of oil thieves.

VM gathered that oil theft is a recurring act in the area, a situation community folks said was possible because of the alleged connivance.

MEND claims responsibility

Meanwhile, the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND, has claimed responsibility for the incident. The group claimed that their target was the refinery.

A statement signed by the spokesman of the group, Jomo Gbomo said the attack on the facility was not by oil thieves or vandals as alleged by NNPC. He claimed that it was a well coordinated act by its men.

”The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, takes responsibility for the sabotage on Sunday, 18 May, 2014, on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC)Refinery Jetty pipelines in Okrika, Rivers State of Nigeria. This attack is line with our on-going operation ‘Hurricane Exodus’, which was intended to bring down the entire refining facility. This facility was infiltrated by a few of our fighters with the aid of our internal agents within the NNPC contrary to  speculations that the sabotage was carried out by “pipeline vandals and oil thieves”, which is a very convenient phrase used in shielding the truth from the public.  Thorough investigations will reveal bomb fragments are the same used in the Warri Refinery explosion of Tuesday, 22 October, 2013,” the group said.

Continuing, the group said the attack was its response to the ongoing  amnesty programe for ex militants in the Niger Delta region which it claimed to be a failure and a conduit pipe for some highly placed Nigerians to divert public funds.