Pipeline Vandalism: We’ve Prosecuted Over 100 Suspects – ONSA

The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) said it had so far prosecuted more than 100 suspects arrested for involvement in vandalisation of crude oil pipelines in the Niger Delta region.

This is as stakeholders in the Niger Delta region, have called on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to upwardly review the contract of the surveillance company in charge of the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP), Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (PINL).

ONSA’s director of Energy Security, Hon. Ojukaye Flag-Amachree, spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt, during a stakeholders’ engagement organised by PINL for its host communities in Abia, Imo and Rivers states.

Flag-Amachree, who was represented by Young-Harry Amachree, said the ONSA has taken it upon itself to ensure that pipeline vandals face the music and urged community leaders to come forward with the names of those involved in such economic sabotage in their communities.

He said, “On the issue of where suspects are arrested and taken to the Police Station, the next moment they are released, the Office of the National Security Adviser took it up immediately it got wind of it. From that moment, there has been a structure which is working now. As I am talking to you, there are teams on the ground.

“We have prosecuted more than 100 suspects as we speak. Today, up to 15 suspects have been taken to Prison (Correctional Centre). We work day and night, 24 hours a day, to make sure that all those involved in these illegal activities are dealt with.

“So, I am giving you an assurance, whatever information you have about these vandals, these bad people amongst us, please, don’t hesitate to call the people you need to call for them to call us to apprehend those vandals.”

Speaking on behalf of the stakeholders at the event, President of the Movement for the Survival of the Izon Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND), Dr. Kennedy West, said an upward review of the PINL’s contract will lead to economic boom within community in the Niger Delta region.

West said: “The essence of the federal government engaging local companies to secure pipelines to add to the efforts of the military is to give it a stakeholder-community content. This is exactly what they are doing.

“There are other companies that were also given the same contract, but you and I have never been invited for an engagement like this. Possibly because we are not carrying guns and they don’t see us as necessary. Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited, you are getting it right. On behalf of the stakeholders, we are giving a thumbs-up to Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited.

“Also, we are using this medium to call on NNPCL to do an upward review of the contract based on current realities, so that there will be a financial boom within the communities. The communities have suffered a lot; this is the only platform, a forum where communities could vent their grievances.”

In his welcome speech, PINL’s media consultant, Dr. Akpos Mezeh, said the company’s mandate to protect the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) has been achieved through strategic engagements with the host communities.

Mezeh said: “PINL’s mandate to protect the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) has been achieved through strategic engagements with the host communities. This collaborative approach has not only led to strong relations but also forged a united front in the fight against crude oil theft.”