NIGERIA: NNPC urges host communities to protect oil pipelines

 

•Abia seeks capital punishment for vandals

The Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Andrew Yakubu, has appealed to communities  hosting  oil and gas pipelines to protect them to prevent vandalism and theft.

According to the Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Fidel Pepple, in a statement yesterday, Yakubu made this plea during the re-inauguration of the Pipelines and Product Marketing Depot in Osisioma near Aba in Abia State on Monday. 

The NNPC boss said: “I call on Abia people, especially Aba youths, to be guardian angels to secure the pipeline and depot facility. 

“You should all be security conscious and ensure that the depot remains open to drive the local economy."

The GMD said the focus of his administration will be on the rehabilitation of vital downstream infrastructure to make petroleum products available to Nigerians in every nook and cranny of the country at lower cost.

Yakubu said he would also champion the construction of critical gas infrastructure to make gas available for power generation and industries to revive Aba as an industrial hub. 

Governor Theodore Orji urged the people to be the eyes and ears of government and report every illegal movement around the pipelines to security agents. 

He said he would propose a bill to the House of Assembly to make pipeline vandalism, oil theft and similar economic crimes capital offences that attract the death penalty. 

The governor who explained that the re-opening of the depot would help to curb kidnapping declared that he had awarded the contract to fix the road leading to the loading bay of the depot to guarantee free flow of traffic to and from the depot.