Soku community in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State has denied that there was a gas pipeline explosion in the area.
General Secretary of the community, Mr. Witness Alasia, in a statement described reports about the alleged explosion as untrue, urging members of the public to discountenance the news as circulated on social media.
Earlier, it had been reported that an explosion occurred on a gas facility located at the Soku axis of Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State.
According to the news source, the explosion which occurred at midnight on Sunday, March 23, 2025 allegedly hit the Soku gas pipeline operated by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) limited.
An environmentalist and the Executive Chairman of the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria), Dumnamene Fyneface, confirmed the explosion through his youth volunteers’ network in the area.
In a statement made available to journalists in Port Harcourt yesterday, Fyneface, said “an explosion accompanied by fireballs was heard and seen in the sky from the facility area which is hard-to-reach and the fire is still ongoing as at the time of this report as shown in the short videos shared with the organization by the youth volunteers of YEAC-Nigeria”.
He said: “The cause of the explosion is not yet known whether it’s caused by equipment failure, sabotage or attack on the facility”.
The Advocacy centre, however, called for investigation into the latest incident alleged in Soku, while also calling on the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to carry out a joint investigation visit (JIV) in the area with a view to determining the cause of the incident and holding perpetrators to account in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021.
But, in a swift reaction, the Soku community countered the report, saying that such an incident didn’t occur and the satellite communities are safe.
Soku community General Secretary Alaska, stated: “On behalf of the leadership of the Soku Kingdom, I write to debunk the falsehood escalating on all social media that there was an explosion in the Soku Gas Plant.
“It is disheartening and worrisome that people will mischievously misinform the public with a baseless and untrue story. Soku Gas Plant is Safe and in a perfect working condition.
“The public should disregard this unguided and untrue report. Though there was a fire outbreak in one of the gas pipelines along Soku-Abua-Rumuji right-of-way, the cause of the explosion is unknown and the Company also has not come up with any useful information.
“We use this medium to inform the public that Soku and her satellite communities are safe and calm.”
