FG to employ communities for pipelines protection

Seemingly dazed by the level of recurring bombings of oil pipelines in the Niger Delta area, the federal government has resolved to engage persons from communities in the region to protect the oil pipelines.

Renewed militant activities in the region have led to a drop in Nigeria’s crude production in recent times from about 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) to around 1.4 million bpd.

This has resulted in the country losing its place as Africa’s top oil producer to Angola.

The Muhammadu Buhari administration had, before now, threatened military action against the perpetrators who it had described as economic saboteurs.

Spokesman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Garba Deen Muhammad, in a statement on Thursday said the federal government announced that it had resolved to work with stakeholders from the Niger Delta region to stop the recent upsurge in attacks on critical oil and gas installations, and to ensure security, stability and economic development of the area.

Read Also : $40m Pipelines Security Contract: EFCC wants to implicate Jonathan – Lawyer

Speaking at the end of the meeting held in Abuja and attended by prominent Niger Delta leaders and other stakeholders, minister of state for petroleum resources and group managing director of the NNPC, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, expressed government’s readiness to check the resurgence of pipeline sabotage in the region.

Present at the meeting were Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole; national security adviser (NSA), Maj. General Mohammed Babagana Monguno (rtd); minister for Niger Delta, Usani Uguru; minister of state for agriculture, Sen. Heneiken Lokpobiri; coordinator, Amnesty Programme, Brigadier General Paul Boroh (rtd), and stakeholders from the seven Niger Delta states of Edo, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta  and Ondo states.

Kachikwu said all the stakeholders resolved that solutions to the incessant attacks on oil and gas pipelines are within the communities, stressing that communities were now saddled with the responsibility of ensuring protection of pipelines within their domain.

Accordingly, government resolved that “all the states in the region would nominate four or five representatives that would work hand-in-hand with security agencies to secure oil facilities in their respective states.”

The minister further stated that violence was not an option in resolving the problems of the Niger Delta and that all threats from the region should end henceforth.

 

 

RipplesNigeria …without borders, without fears

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now