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ILADO, Nigeria (AP) - President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered stepped-up protection for pipelines after a gasoline blast killed up to 200 people, but Nigerians said Saturday that impoverished villagers would keep tapping the pipes to pilfer fuel.
Rescue workers tried to finish collecting the dead for burial in mass graves by sundown. But at least 22 charred bodies floated in the tidal mangrove swamps east of the main city of Lagos — miles from the site of Friday's disaster in Ilado village.
Police said there was no sign that the fire at a ruptured pipeline was sabotage and they assumed villagers had punctured it to steal fuel. They said 150 to 200 people died in the flames when the gasoline ignited.
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