Four killed as explosion rocks NNPC Lagos depot

Tragedy struck on Monday at the Petroleum Wharf, Apapa, Lagos State, after an explosion at the jetty killed four people. _A_ vessel, identified as _Histria Ivory_, was discharging Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) around 3 am when some hoodlums besieged it to scoop fuel spilling from the vessel.

The activities of the hoodlums were to have caused an explosion, which resulted in the death of four people. Officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, men of the Lagos State Fire Service, Federal Fire Service, Nigerian Ports Authority and the Nigerian Navy were said to have been called when the jetty’s in-house fire unit could not handle the inferno.

A top official of one of the oil marketing companies said, “The fire incident started around 3am at the Petroleum Wharf, Apapa, which is one of the three jetties in Apapa. It lasted for about one hour. The people who were scooping fuel were trying to open one of the manifolds through which the depots receive fuel from vessels when the fire occurred. Four people died in the process.”