Farmlands destroyed, children still missing after NNPC pipeline explosion – Akwa Ibom residents

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Farmlands destroyed, children still missing after NNPC pipeline explosion – Akwa Ibom residents

Residents of Obotim Nsit community in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area, LGA, of Akwa Ibom State say the recent explosion of a gas pipeline in the area have left them in shambles.
They lamented that some of their children were still missing and their farmlands destroyed.

Speaking with journalists on Monday, the village head of the community, Chief Akponidung Akpan Ukpong, said several children got missing while trying to flee the explosion that occurred in the wee hours of Monday.

He said, “When I came out from my house, I discovered very heavy flames and people started running for safety.

“So many children are missing and we are still looking for them; we have not traced them and many people were taken to the hospital.

“Besides the missing children, our farmlands have been destroyed,” Ukpong noted.

It would be recalled that a gas pipeline belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, on Monday got blown up.

The gas pipeline is located at Nsit-Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa-Ibom State.

While the Niger Delta Avengers had claimed responsibility for blowing up the pipeline, the state Commissioner of Police, CP, in the state, Murtala Mani, attributed the explosion to a technical fault.