Introduce award for communities with no record of pipeline destruction, NIEEE chairman urges FG

National Chairman of Nigerian Institution of Electrical Electronic Engineers (NIEEE), Mr Gracious Omatseye,has suggested the introduction of an annual award to communities with less or no records of destruction of oil pipelines or electricity installations.

Omatseye told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday, in Lagos that this would go a long way in encouraging community leaders to ensure that pipelines and installations were not destroyed.
Omatseye also advised that government should always engage all stakeholders in oil and gas pipelines host communities to have
first-hand knowledge of problems facing the area.

The government should commit all these communities to moving the country forward.In this regard, the government should announce special award, may be in cash, to any host communities that did not have any record of pipeline vandalism or destruction in a year.

This will encourage community leaders to monitor government pipeline or installations within their communities.They will even encourage their youth not to be involved in any act that can lead to destruction of those pipelines, knowing fully that there are some kind of compensation later,” he said.

The chairman said that some of the reasons for destruction of pipelines by militants were claims of neglect of their communities by the government. (NAN)