President Muhammadu Buhari has commiserated with families who lost loved ones, and all those affected by explosion.

 

The president also condoled with the Lagos State government and all residents affected by the unfortunate incident.

 

According to a statement by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu, President Buhari said a misfortune of whatever scale anywhere is a tragedy to the country.

 

 

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has revealed the cause of the pipeline explosion that killed at least 15 people and destroyed about 50 buildings after a fire broke out in Abule-Ado area of Lagos.

The corporation saidthe explosion occurred when a truck hit some gas cylinders in the area.

 

This was made known in a statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Kennie Obateru.

 

NNPC said the incident occurred after a truck hit some gas cylinders stacked in a gas processing plant located near the corporation’s system 2B Pipeline Right of Way.

 

The corporation said it has quickly halted ongoing pumping operations on the Atlas Cove-Mosimi pipeline which was active at the time.

 

Obateru however noted that the temporary shutdown of the critical System 2B pipeline would not affect the supply of petrol across the country.

 

NNPC boss, Mele Kyari, and other top management of the corporation visited the sceneof the incident for an on-the-spot assessment.

According to zonal coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, several people were injured and taken to hospital.

Farinloye said some of the buildings collapsed while many roof-tops were blown off.

 

The minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, says the federal government is yet to place ban on any country as it continues to battle with the outbreak of coronavirus in the country.

Ehanire disclosed this in Abuja during a conference with the diplomatic community about measures taken by the Federal Government to tackle the spread of Covid-19 in Nigeria.

He, however, warned Nigerian citizens from traveling to endemic countries including China, Japan, Italy, South Korea, and Iran.

 

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has promised to review the ongoing two weeks warning strike following the intervention of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.

The National President of ASUU, Professor Abiodun Ogunyemi, made this known at a meeting with the speaker at the National Assembly Complex on Thursday in Abuja, which was aimed at halting the strike.

He said that the union would consult with its various structures across different universities in the country and get back to the speaker  “early next week”.

Ogunyemi said it has become public knowledge that government could not respect the 2009 agreement it reached with the union.

On the agreement reached between ASUU and the Federal Government in 2009, Gbajabiamila said he wondered why the government could not meet its commitment for more than 10 years after it signed the document.