How to tackle pipeline vandalism in Abia communities, by monarchs

Oil-bearing communities of Abia State have called for more collaboration among the stakeholders for a more effective security around the nation’s oil pipelines to check vandalism and oil bunkering.

Representatives of 20 oil-bearing and impacted communities in Ukwa West and Ukwa East councils made the call at a stakeholders’ meeting organised yesterday by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) in Umuahia.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), they attributed the incessant pipeline vandalism to security lapses aided by compromised security operatives and called for more stringent measures to checkmate the phenomenon.

The traditional ruler of Okwe in Ukwa West, Eze Samuel Nwachi, urged oil companies and relevant government agencies to integrate leaders of oil-bearing and impacted communities in their plans to secure the pipelines in their communities.

Nwachi said that community leaders, including the youths, were always worried about pipeline vandalism and the resultant oil spill and were anxious to be part of the solution.

Also, the traditional ruler of Mbam Abuo Autonomous Community in Ukwa East, Eze Israel Nwankwo, said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) had yet to demonstrate genuine commitment towards safeguarding the pipelines against vandalism.

Nwankwo, who claimed that oil pipelines passed his community in Ndoki, described vandalism and oil bunkering as a common phenomenon in the area.

He blamed the development on the failure of the oil companies and relevant government agencies to provide adequate and effective security around the pipes.

“If the owner of a property fails to take care of his property, it simply shows that the person did not attach value to the property, and others will take it,” he said.

The monarch, therefore, called for more security around the pipelines, saying that vandals were taking advantage of security lapses to perpetrate their crime.