NSCDC establishes Command and Control Centre to fight oil pipeline vandalism

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) on Friday said it had established a `Command and Control Centre’ to combat oil pipeline vandalism.

The Spokesman of the Corps, Mr Emmanuel Okeh, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the Centre was established at its National Headquarters in Abuja.

“ Right now, the Corps has introduced what we call `the Command and Control Centre’ which is at the National headquarters here in Abuja to monitor the oil pipelines in the six states of the South-South region.

“With this new technology, there is no need of lining up our personnel from one place to another in these areas anymore. As a matter of fact, we can now monitor anything going on in these areas from here.

“Once we detect anything, we alert the JTF and our personnel that are on ground to move straight to the spot where the act of vandalism is taking place to apprehend those involved,’’ he said.

Okeh said that the new technology was introduced to complement the new drone technology which was introduced in September 2015 , adding that over 100 personnel were so far trained on the use of drone.

“ Vandalism has been one of the greatest challenges in this country. It has wrecked our national assets and affected the income of the nation.

“NSCDC as the lead agency in the protection of critical infrastructure has put a lot of technology in place to ensure the successful tracking of vandals and possibly to bring the act to the barest minimum.

“As a matter of urgency, the NSCDC under the leadership of Alhaji Abdullahi Muhammadu ensured that over 100 personnel underwent training on the use of drone at the Corps’ National Energy Security Command in Bayelsa,’’ he said.

The spokesman said the new drone uses GPS to document the times and places where vandals were observed.

He said the unmanned aerial vehicle was designed to document evidence of vandalism and help the NSCDC to apprehend vandals while in action.

He also said that there were so many other measures being deplored by the Corps to fight vandalism which he could not reveal for security reasons.

“Apart from these, there are other technologies which we cannot make known to the public for security reasons.

“The reason is because the moment you expose your strategies, you put the enemy one step ahead of you and they go ahead to put up counter measures.

“However, all I can say for now, is that we are on top of the situation and with the Command and Control Centre, very soon the act of vandalism will be a thing of the past,” Okeh said.