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EXPLOSIONS: Senate asks NNPC, PPMC to reconsider use of local vigilantes to secure pipelines

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Nigerian Senate on Wednesday expressed worries over the growing issues of pipeline explosions and deaths of Nigerians as a result.

The lawmakers have therefore directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Pipeline and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) to ensure improvement in pipeline security architecture in order to end loss of lives and funds as a result of pipeline explosions.

The Senate suggested to NNPC and PPMC not to delay reconsidering the engagement of communities and local vigilantes in its security architecture if that will bring solution to the problem.

Government before President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had used local vigilantes to secure the pipelines but that ended after Buhari became President in 2015.

But following the recurrent issues of pipeline explosions supposedly as a result of vandalism, the Senate would not mind if local vigilantes are recruited again to end the menace.

The resolution came following the lawmakers’ adoption of a motion entitled “Ijegun pipeline explosion: Urgent need to prevent pipeline vandalism and explosion resulting in deaths and massive destruction of property.”

Senator Solomon Adeola (Lagos West), who sponsored the motion, had in his lead debate told his colleague how disastrous the pipeline explosion that rocked Ijegun, located in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos, in the early hours of Thursday, July 4, 2019 was.

Noting that 12 persons were burnt to death, over 40 persons sustained various degree of burns, he added that 30 vehicles burnt, two secondary schools namely Ijegun Junior and Senior Secondary School, 20 other buildings as well as goods worth millions of naira were all destroyed in the inferno.

The senator, further noting he understands that pipeline explosion are primarily caused by oil thieves’ vandalisation of pipelines for siphoning of petroleum products, said it was very worrisome that the incident in Ijegun followed the pattern of similar explosion at Abule- Egba, Ajeromi- Ifelodun in Lagos State on Wednesday December 19, 2018 and elsewhere with similar huge losses.

He said it was unfortunate that in spite of the reoccurrence of these explosions over the years from mostly the activities of vandals, no lasting solution has been found to stop the horrible incidents.

According to him, in addition to general security for pipelines protection from vandalisation, the NNPC, PPMC, had before now engaged local/ community vigilantes to monitor and help secure the pipelines.

Contributing to the motion, Senator Oluremi Tinubu said it was necessary that Lagos State be assisted in the area of infrastructure, adding that she would soon reintroduce the special status bill for Lagos State.

The Lagos Central senator argued that more than 50 per cent of the Value Added Tax (VAT) collected in the country comes from Lagos and that she is asking that just one per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund be devoted to Lagos State for the maintenance of infrastructure.

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The National Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Ministry of Health were asked to immediately come to the aid of families in distress at Ijegun and environs as well as see to medical needs of those in hospital as a result of the recent incident.

The Senate at last resolved that the Ijegun pipeline explosion should be included to the investigative mandate of the ad-hoc committee commissioned by chamber on Rivers State explosion in view of their similarities and occurrence at almost the same period.

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