OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Tuesday 11.00pm
REPORTS in Lagos indicate the death toll in the Nigerian pipeline tragedy may be nearer to 1000 than the 500 first estimated.
Local media, including the semi-official Daily Times newspaper, Tuesday quoted eyewitnesses as saying as many as 1000 people had died in the inferno in Jesse, in the mid-western state of Delta.
Officials inspecting the site, where residual fuel in the pipeline may burn for several days yet, say the leak may be the result of sabotage, possibly by thieves wishing to steal fuel.
The surrounding area is littered with jerry cans and buckets, carried by local villagers who rushed to pick up some free fuel. Many of them were children, and died in the blaze.
The local hospitals are overwhelmed, and doctors say many of the victims are not expected to survive.
Bulldozers were on Tuesday digging a mass grave nearby in which to bury 300 of the dead, many of them burnt beyond recognition.
Nigeria’s military leader General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who paid an unscheduled visit to the site on Monday, has ruled out compensation to families of the victims. “I want to state very clearly that there is no relief to the families of the victims by the government. What we would do on humanitarian grouds is to pick up the hospital bills of the injured,” he said.