On Monday, October 1, a strange geological occurrence caused an eruption of fire and some substances from the earth around Katampe, Abuja. The incident caused panic in the area.

Barely a month after earth tremors occurred in Mpape, a volcanic-like eruption has occurred in the area. The incident happened close to bridge along Ejo Obo Estate Road in Katampe on Monday, when the nation was celebrating its independence anniversary.
But unlike a volcano that happens on mountains, this eruption was from a valley, from which substances were emitted and a crack appeared on the surface some way off from the eruption.

The eruption, which occurred underneath an electric pole, has left residents apprehensive as several people trooped to the scene to take a look. Though the scene was cordoned off, there were no security personnel in sight as residents broke off pieces of the substance, claiming that it could cure ailments.

Meanwhile, the district head of Katampe, Alhaji Adamu Diga, said the residents were apprehensive about the incident but normalcy has been restored.

“Nobody knows what happened. People were passing and hearing noise like something was moving inside the ground. They went to check and saw smoke,” that was how it was discovered on Monday, he said adding that nobody could tell how it came to be.
Reacting, the FCT Minister visited the area along with his Mines and Steel counterpart Abubakar Bawa Bwari and the Director General of the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) Alex Ndubuisi Nwegbu.

The NGSA boss had indicated that a malfunction in the electrical installation around the area may have caused the fire incident.

According to Nwegbu, “What we are suspecting is that the fusion coincides with the position of the pole, so we are suspecting that perhaps the electric pole must have experienced short-circuiting where the heat melts the synthetic material which could be asphalt or something else. Until we subject it to an analytical test, then we can conclusively tell you what material this is made of. So we are going to bore down to know the extent to which this material is buried down and from there we will draw our own judgment.”

•Excerpted from a Daily Trust report