Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, has on Sunday said the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, must be blamed for the continuous incidents of pipeline vandalism in the country.
Amosun stated this when he visited the scene of an explosion in Arepo, Ogun State.
The incident which resulted to the death of many many vandals occurred on Sunday.
A furious Amosun while speaking said: “It has come to a stage where we have to tell ourselves the home truth; this shows that we are our own problem in this nation; we are our own enemies because this is clearly a failure of governance.”
“We have NNPC there indeed I have to say it here and am saying it with all sense of responsibility that, NNPC by their inaction is aiding and abetting the vandals.”
“Indeed, I want to believe that they are part of this pipeline vandalisation with their inaction because you can’t have somebody there as GMD, NNPC or what have you and they will allow this to be happening.”
“How can some vandals put everybody in this nation into problem? Just look at dead bodies littering the place,” he added.
He said the NNPC has failed to fully secure its facilities, saying that was why vandals often tamper with it.
“How can we not spend token to maintain it? That is why I said NNPC with their inaction are part of this problem. I want to believe that they are the people aiding and abetting these vandals.”
“Even the security people here, are risking their lives. Look at the canoe NNPC is using in this age and time. Even when they say the place is combustible, they can use solar power canoe. If they support, I will get all these place cleared before the end of March. I need swamp buggies. I will clear this place and we will erect platform.
“Look at where they said is security watchtower is. Who will go and stay there to watch anything? This is not good for us as a nation, we are our own enemies. Any public thing, nobody look after it. We should do the right thing. This is multi billion naira investment,” he said.
“There is no access to go there and these are the people with sophisticated weapons. I even understand that, that was the same spot where the NNPC engineers were killed; so which officer will want to risk his life? If we have this type of investment, of course we should do ourselves some good.
“I will be responsible, if they are ready to partner with us. We’ll clear this place, by end of March 2013. You will not see anything here again. We would have started erecting the platform, they will put CCTV there and there will be control room”.
He added that: “NNPC has been going front and back. If they want to stop vandalisation in Ogun State – I don’t know of any other state – they should come and we’ll rob minds because I don’t want Ogun State to be on the front pages of newspapers for wrong reasons.”
“I will write again to the appropriate authority and I have been doing that. This is not good for us as a nation. Every time, they will say that vandals have done this and that, what have they (NNPC) done? Some people will be in Abuja blowing big grammars and doing nothing; very ineffective,” the governor retorted.
