Lagos March 15 explosion: BBC goofed, report jaundiced, unbalanced

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) may have embarked on contrivances through its reports to attack the integrity of certain institutions of Nigerian Government to discredit them, Persecondnews reports.

One of such reports is a recent one by the BBC African Eye on the pipeline explosion that occurred in Sabo, a Lagos suburb, on March 15, 2020, which appear to fit a pattern of media blackmail of critical government institutions, especially the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The report said the BBC African Eye had obtained “new evidence” which contradicted NNPC’s official explanation on the cause of the explosion which claimed 23 lives.

NNPC had claimed at the time that the explosion occurred as a result of a truck that hit gas cylinders around the petroleum pipeline, where people had turned into a residential and commercial area contrary to regulations.

But BBC said its evidence a five-minute video and three sources (said to be experts in petroleum pipeline safety) – showed that there was a leak of “vaporized liquid” from the point of explosion on the pipeline.

It said the evidence indicated that there was inadequate protection of the pipeline from soil erosion and that the NNPC failed to maintain industry standard.

The BBC African Eye, in the tradition of true journalism, sent a questionnaire to the NNPC requesting for the Corporations response to the allegations, including claim that victims of the explosion were not compensated.

BBC, however, breached all rules of balance and objectivity when it published the report of its investigations without reflecting the position of NNPC to all the allegations raised.

The media house portrayed the report as premeditated when it sent it out to some local media in Nigeria with a plea to help re-publish.

But the NNPC response to the BBC African Eye questionnaire, dated August 28,  obtained by Persecondnews contained details of its own investigations and conclusions which were ignored.

NNPC had responded to all the five allegations put to it in details, insisting on its initial explanation that the explosion was caused when a truck heavily laden with stones hit gas cylinders around the pipeline.

In a detailed response addressed to Marc Perkins, editor of the BBC African Eye, the corporation insisted that a truck, heavily laden with stones,  was in the vicinity of the explosion, which clearly “indicated that it was instrumental to the explosion. A close look at the area would show that most of the people carrying out their businesses there were in breach of the corporation’s Pipeline Right of Way which is 15 meters on either side of the pipeline.”

The NNPC stated further that residents of the area engaged in LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) vending, saw-milling, cement trading, auto repair, cooking, roasting  and  other activities inimical to a pipeline right of way.

“The eye-witness reports we got indicated that the explosion occurred when the above-mentioned truck hit cylinders at the LPG shop.”

On the claim that there was a leakage on the pipeline which released vaporized liquid that caused the explosion, the Corporation stated that there was no leakage of PMS or any other vaporized liquid from its pipeline at the point of the explosion prior to the incident.

Instead, it said: “At about the time of the explosion (0852hrs to 08S7hrs), a pressure drop from 42 to 8 bar was observed during our pumping operations and the pipeline was immediately shutdown. Any leakage prior to the incident would have resulted in a drop in pressure. But that was not the case.

“It must also be noted that both Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) are petroleum products that essentially burn the same way. Since there was an  LPG vending shop at the location, it is more likely that the incident was caused by LPG explosion. The incident was typical of gas explosion.”

But curiously, a report on the explosion circulated in the local media by BBC African Eye made little or no reference to the official response of the corporation, but instead repeated claims made by its sources which were at variance with the official explanations it requested from NNPC.

Its only reference to Nigeria’s official explanation was to its third and fifth allegations that the pipelines were not well protected and that the Corporation did not pay compensation to victims of the explosion.

But even the NNPC’s responses to the allegations were largely ignored, and got only a passing mention.

NNPC had described claims of inadequate protection of the pipeline against erosion as incorrect, and that the pipeline was not exposed at the vicinity of the explosion, but that “the pipeline was excavated  to  enable repair works after the  incidence and  the  area  has  since  been restored  and the pipeline re-commissioned for operations.”

According to the document, the corporation insisted that its pipelines were designed “operated and  maintained    in strict  compliance with the safely  and  regulatory guidelines of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and API/ANSI/ASME standards,” maintaining there was  no  issue of negligence in terms of ensuring the  integrity of the pipeline.

The corporation stressed that despite the fact that the explosion was not caused by its negligence, it worked “closely with the Lagos State Government in  providing a  N2billion relief  fund for the  victims,” contrary to the allegation made by the media house.