Admin l Friday, March 25, 2022
ABUJA, Nigeria – The Federal Government has warned that it would no longer condone any form of criminality in the nation’s oil and gas facilities and installations, stressing that crude oil thieves, pipeline vandals, and illegal refineries have their days numbered.
The warning was given when Minister of State, Mr. Timiprey Sylva, Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, and Chief Executives of Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission(NUPRC) Engr. Gbenga Komolafe during on-the-spot assessment of pipelines damaged by vandals and other criminals in some areas and communities in Rivers State.
At Ibaa Community in Emeoha Local Community, the delegation witnessed an illegal refinery burnt down by the military. Speaking on the development, Sylva said that apart from causing huge loses to the country, it is also destroying livelihood of people and the environment.
To solve the problem, Sylva said the community must be involved and that the third arm that is operating publics must be involved.
“I want to let everybody know that these criminals have their days numbered because the country has lost so much from their activities”.
Also speaking, Chief of Defence Staff, General Irabor said “in carrying out the President’s directive to contain loses from these criminalities, the military will deploy a different strategy and a new drive by pursuing not only the criminals but also their sponsors. “We are not only zeroing in on criminals but also on those supporting them”.
In his remarks, CEO of NUPRC,Engr. Gbenga Komolafe described the act of crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism as a “national disaster and the perpetrators are criminals”.
“For those who want to do legitimate business, there are clear government regulations on how that is done but what we have seen here today are criminals and their activities will no longer be tolerated”.
On his part, GMD/CEO of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari explained that the scale of crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism seen in the community was beyond explanation, adding that all hands must be on deck to contain the spate of crude oil losses in the country.
