Angry villagers lashed out at Nigeria's state oil company on Sunday for not repairing a vandalized pipeline that gushed fuel for weeks before exploding, killing at least 125 people.
Charles Onoha, chief of the village of Onicha Amiyi-Uhu, said he and other elders alerted officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum a month ago that the pipeline in southeastern Nigeria had been ruptured.
"We begged NNPC to stop the spillage, but they did nothing," Onoha told reporters. "They should be held responsible for this disaster."
The death toll from the explosion rose to 125 people, mainly unemployed youths and children scavenging the flammable fluids, according to Nigerian Red Cross figures released late on Sunday.
Nigerian Red Cross president Emmanuel Ijewere said that figure was likely to rise as rescuers collect more bodies and interview survivors.
The 10-year-old pipeline pumps kerosene, diesel and gasoline from a refinery in Port Harcourt to the southeastern city of Enugu. Residents said vandals frequently puncture the pipe and young men collect the gushing fuel in jerry-cans and barrels and resell it -- a practice known as "scooping" or "bunkering."
Ndu Ughamadu, a state spokesman for the oil company, said he and other officials first became aware of the leakage after the explosion Thursday night. But he said company policy was to continue pumping fuel during "minor leakages."
"We have more than 5,000km of pipeline to monitor. At the same time we have a serious fuel scarcity in this country," Ughamadu said from Abuja, Nigeria's capital. "We cannot afford to halt supplies unless the breakage is a serious one."
The blast was touched off by a spark from a motorcycle used by one of the victims, said Solomon Ibe, a 21-year-old farmer who was walking by at the time.
* Oct. 18, 1998: Fire engulfs more than 2,000 villagers scrambling for petrol near ruptured pipeline in Jesse, outside Warri. Nearly 1,000 people killed.
* June 4, 1999: Ethnic clashes flare again in Nigeria's southern oil industry hub of Warri; scores of people reported dead in six days of fighting.
* March 14, 2000: At least 50 villagers scooping up gasoline from broken products pipeline at Umuichieichi-Umungbede village in Abia State burn to death after explosion.
* March 22, 2000: At least 50 Nigerian villagers burn to death when petrol gushing from a vandalised pipeline catches fire as they collect it in buckets and tins.
* July 10, 2000: A pipeline in Nigeria explodes, killing about 250 villagers, with fires burning out of control about 20 km from the town of Jesse.
Source: reuters
"I saw a boy kickstart his motorcycle, and then suddenly there was fire everywhere and everyone was running randomly to escape," Ibe said.
Innocent Chiege, a village medical doctor, accused the state company of negligence.
"We had called on them for surveillance of the pipeline to stop leakages and prevent disasters. But they did not listen," Chiege said.
Residents picked through the blackened forest surrounding the site Sunday in search of missing relatives. The rotting, charred remains of 20 people, many burned to bone and white ash, could be seen in tangled thickets of blackened bush.
Word of the disaster emerged slowly because many survivors apparently feared prosecution for theft and sabotage, Ijewere said.
Pipeline vandalism is common in Nigeria and thousands have been killed in explosions in recent years, including more than 1,000 in a 1998 blast in the Niger River delta town of Jesse.
The government has tried to educate villagers about the danger of scavenging pipeline fuel. But the practice continues, spurred by poverty and anger at the government and oil industry for allegedly polluting the environment and financially neglecting the oil-rich delta.
Nigeria is Africa's largest petroleum exporter and the fifth-largest source of oil exports to the US.
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