July 23, 2000 was a black Sunday in Warri, Delta state when forty fuel scavengers burnt to death in a pipeline fire outbreak, near Warri port.
The sad occurrence was the second pipeline explosion that happened in the oil city of Warri in July, 2000.
On Monday 10 July, 2000, a similar explosion had rocked a village called Adeje, near Warri where no fewer than 250 Nigerians scooping up the petrol in buckets feared dead.
Police were seen cordoning off the scene of the explosion, on the following day of the tragic incidence when the State petroleum workers rushed to the area to assess the damage. The cause of the accident was unclear and a government statement signed by information minister, Prof. Jerry Gana late on Monday said "several lives" were lost and a "vital" petroleum pipeline destroyed.
"The government sympathises with the families of those who lost their lives in the incident," the statement added. A reporter who returned from the scene quoted officials as saying that the initial leak was caused by vandals who punctured the pipeline with sharp tools.
The incident occurred close to the town of Jesse where more than 700 people died in a similar disaster in 1998. Pipeline sabotage was a common phenomenon in Nigeria at that time and vandals have triggered numerous explosions.
The Warri pipeline, owned by state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC), was originally built to carry crude oil to a refinery in the northern town of Kaduna. It has been modified to transport refined products following a prolonged shutdown of NNPC's 110,000 barrels per day Kaduna refinery for repairs.
President Olusegun Obasanjo administration who came to office in May 1999, has set up a task force of soldiers and police backed by helicopters to protect pipelines.
At least 497 cases of vandalism were recorded in 1999 compared with 57 cases in 1998, according to the state petroleum company. Each incident forced costly shutdowns and repairs. Sabotage is sometimes carried out by militant activists trying to force the government and oil companies to give compensation to communities for land use and alleged pollution. In other cases, villagers collect the gushing fuel to make a crude mixture of oil and gasoline for cheap generators and other motors.
The government said it had allocated "enormous resources" in its attempt to educate Nigerians about the need to protect oil pipelines to avoid "tragic accidents which have always resulted in loss of lives and property". It also called on all Nigerians to cooperate with the state petroleum company's efforts to guarantee an uninterrupted supply of petroleum.
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