Ikeja gas leakage under control as another building partially collapses in Lekki – LASEMA tells Neusroom
The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) has confirmed reports of gas leakage at Oba Akran in the Ikeja local government area of the state on Wednesday, November 3, 2021.
The agency, however, told Neusroom that the situation was now under control.
“Men of the Lagos fire service are on the ground with two trucks and necessary materials in case of fire. We have called the gas pipeline supply to slow down gas supply to that axis and go there to investigate,” Nosa Okunbo, the PRO of LASEMA, told Neusroom in a phone interview.
There was panic in the early hours of Wednesday over reports of ‘massive gas leakage’ around Computer Village, Nigeria’s biggest marketplace for the sale and repair of ICT products. In 2018, the then President of Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria, Ojikutu Adeniyi, claimed members of the group make total daily revenue of N1.5 billion. There are no data from a relevant authority to confirm his claim.
Oba Akran area is also home to several businesses and factories, including Guinness Nigeria Plc, Tower Aluminium, Berger Paint, Nigerite and AIICO Insurance, among many others.
An explosion in the area, observers say, could be very devastating if not quickly averted.
Okunbo confirmed to Neusroom that the axis has a gas pipeline under it.
“I’m still at Ikoyi, but updates from the local emergency people confirmed that the gas is leaking, and it appears to be a bit heavy,” he said. “We are sending a team to enlighten people not to smoke or bring naked fire close to the axis. We are also trying to evacuate people.”
The LASEMA team has been under intense pressure in the last 48 hours since a 21-storey building under construction collapsed in Ikoyi on Monday evening, and Okunbo also revealed that one of its teams is presently heading to Osapa London in Lekki after they received a distress call that a storey building partially collapsed in the area on Wednesday morning.
“Our team is going there to examine, and they will decide whether to bring it down,” he told Neusroom.
