 | Quite a bit of interesting detail in this article. The explosion occurred on Saturday. |
The Nigeria Police yesterday said the bomb blast which rocked the petroleum tanker driversÂ’ park in Warri on Saturday night might have been timed to start a chain reaction of explosions. Superintendent of Police, Mr. Job Olorijolu, who led six other police bomb disposal experts told the Chief of Defence Staff, General Alex Ogomudia, who yesterday went to the scene of the incident to see things for himself.| CSI: Warri on the case... |
Ogomudia was shown the deep crater on the concrete floor of the park where THISDAY gathered over 200 trucks were at the park when the explosion occurred. According to information, the bomb was placed inside a Mercedes Benz 190 Saloon car whose parts were scattered over several areas. The Police said the bomb was timed to create several explosions among the trucks which were tightly parked together. But, according to information, the ploy failed as all the trucks were without products as at the time of the incident as it was weekend and no loading of products had taken place.
However, the explosion sent several pieces of the car into different directions, shattering most of the louvres on the National Union of Petroleum and National Gas Workers (NUPENG), Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) unit office. Several trucks nearby were also badly damaged. THISDAY gathered that the devastation of the explosion would have affected the David Ejoor Barracks of the 93 Battalion of the Nigerian Army, which also serve as headquarters of the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the Niger Delta, Operation Restore Hope.Ogomudia, accompanied by the Commander of the JTF, Brig. Gen. Alfred Ilogho, the Commanding Officer of the Warri Naval Base, NNS Delta, Captain Mufutau Ajibade and the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Udom Ekpoudom were surprised that there was no internal security arrangement for safeguarding properties at the park by NUPENG.He was, however, told by the Chairman of NUPENG PTD, Mr. Matthias Ote, that the unit made up of drivers are in no financial position to undertake the huge financial burden of erecting a perimeter fence for the park. He said that they have been appealing to the Delta State Government, which donated the park to the union, to help build a fence around it.
It would be recalled that barely 10 minutes after the explosion, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, (MEND) claimed responsibility for the explosion. The militant group in a message sent to media houses said it has detonated a car bomb near the Warri refinery. |