Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has attributed the incessant vandalism of petroleum pipelines by oil thieves across the country partly to negligence on the part of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
The governor spoke on Wednesday when he visited the scene of a vandalised petroleum pipeline along Iperu-Ogere Road in the Ikenne Local Government Area of the state.
Some suspected vandals had ruptured another pipeline in the same area on Tuesday and the governor said the issue of vandalism was a reflection of the state of the nation.
“Vandalism is a daily occurrence which shows the way we are as a nation. I still maintain that Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is part of the problem being the agency assigned to ensure that things like this do not happen.
“This is either dereliction of duty or negligence on the part of the agency of government. I don’t know how it would be difficult for us as a nation to prevent the recurrence of this ugly incidence.”
Amosun said in 2012 after such incident at Arepo, President Goodluck Jonathan had invited him to his office in Abuja, where he gave him some solutions to pipeline vandalism, but the governor who was visibly angry at the colossal loss of revenue to vandals, said the president did nothing about it.
While he suggested that governors of various states, where petroleum pipelines pass through, should be involved in checkmating vandals, he alleged that there was complicity of influential people in pipeline vandalism.
Amosun, who decried the award of pipeline protection contract to a group by the Federal Government, noted that the deployment of modern technology and relevant security agencies should be considered for the nation’s multi-billion naira investment.
The state’s Commander, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Akinwande Aboluwoye, urged villagers in the vicinity, where petroleum pipelines were located, to give information to security agents on how to tackle vandalism.
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