By Our correspondent
Published: Wednesday, 27 Dec 2006

While Adebayo, who arrived at the scene at about 10am, denied the allegation that the police had heard about the scooping in the area for weeks, Kupolokun said the NNPC was aware and police were aware.

The commissioner said he got the report on Tuesday morning and immediately called his men to move to the scene.

He said, “I got telephone calls this morning and sent my men to the scene. If anyone said reports had previously been made at the Oko-Oba police station, that would have to be investigated.

“No one ever told me that such a thing (scooping of fuel) was going on there, and if the DPO of Oko-Oba got the reports and he did not act, we know the appropriate action to take after investigation.”

Adebayo argued that what happened was only a fall-out of “disobedience” by those scooping fuel from vandalised pipelines.

He claimed that about 500 men have been detailed to the scene with another 2,000 expected to ward off the crowd, which had taken half of the Lagos- Abeokuta Expressway to watch the charred human bodies.

But Kupolokun, who arrived at the scene at about 12.30pm, in company with his top management staff, confirmed that the corporation was aware of the siphoning of fuel from the pipeline.

According to him, “We are aware and the police are aware, and we put securitymen to be patrolling the area. But they cannot do much except we station them 24 hours at the pipeline. So, the onus falls on everybody to keep surveillance at the place.”

As it is, all hopes for an early end to the current fuel scarcity, dimmed further with the pipeline explosion.

Kupolokun said, “The pipeline will take at least three days before it can be repaired.”