Suspected militants have set ablaze a gas pipeline located at Ogijo/Simawa axis of Sagamu Local Government in Ogun State.

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Ogun State Command, said on Thursday that the attack occurred at about 2.00am on Wednesday.

The spokesperson for the command, Kareem Olanrewaju, said the affected pipeline is a major gas pipeline connecting Egbin power plant through Oke-Iga/PZ Estate Phase E, in Ogijo town.

He said while the cause of the explosion had not been categorically established, preliminary investigations showed that it happened due to vandalism or sabotage by militants.

He said the culprits might have used an electrical cable to trigger the explosion.

“Though, in spite of all these findings, the Corps is still trying to dig deeper, to see whether another dimension or reasons could still be discovered. So far, there is no casualty resulting from the gas pipeline explosion,” he said.

Mr. Olanrewanju said the Ogun State commandant of the corps, Aboluwoye Akinwande, had directed more surveillance in the area.

In a separate development, Mr. Olanrewaju said the corps’ anti-vandal team early Thursday clashed with vandals around Shimawa in Sagamu local government area of Ogun State.

He said the incident happened as the personnel were returning from patrol, and were about to hand over to their colleagues on morning shit.

“The gun men numbering about ten all with Ak47 rifles and explosives hung on their neck emerged on a Canoe through Shimawa River close to pipeline. They opened fire on them while our men engaged them in shootout. It took the intervention of morning duty men who moved to the scene to rescue them when they heard sporadic shooting from the scene,” he said.

Mr. Olanrewaju said some of the militants sustained various degree of injuries, and that there was no casualty on the corps’ side.