Arepo fire: Amosun, marketers blame FG

The Fire

THE Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has blamed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), for its insensitivity to incessant pipelines vandalisation in Arepo, Obafemi Owode Local Government area of the state.

Amosun said this while fielding questions from newsmen on Sunday, after inspecting the scene of a fire outbreak that occured on Friday night, due to the  activities of people suspected to be vandals.

It is recalled that 30 persons were reported dead in the incident.

Nigerian Tribune recalls that similar incident happened last August which forced NNPC to shut down supply of petroleum product to the Atlas Cove Jetty, Lagos.
This development resulted in scarcity of petroleum products in the South-West states which later affected other parts of the country.

The governor was accompanied in an hour canoe drive to and fro the spot of the incident with the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Ikemefuna Okoye, the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in charge of Pipeline Vandalisation, Mr Friday Oyebade, members of the Ogun State cabinet, millitary personnel.

Amosun noted that ineptitudes of officials of the petroleum corporation towards safeguarding of oil pipelines, especially in the state and maintained that the problem could be attributed to failure of governance.

“What happened here clearly shows that we are our own problem in this nation. We are our own enemies, because this is clearly a failure of governance. I have to say it here, and I’m 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,” he said.

He wondered why a big corporation like NNPC could not afford to buy a solar power canoe for his monitoring team to checkmate the activities of the vandals instead of “an age -long canoe.”

Amosun said, “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 powered canoe.”

Amosun expressed the readiness of his administration to support and cooperate with officials of the corporation to provide a platform on the waterway to the pipeline location for easy access and proper surveillance of the area.

He berated the attitude of Nigerians to the maintainance of public property, urging all and sundry to embrace the spirit of maintainance culture to protect government property.

“If they support, I will get this place cleared before the end of March. I need swampy buggie. I will clear this place and we will erect platform. Look at where they said the 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 looks after it. We should do the right thing. This is a multi billion naira investment. How can we not spend money to maintain it?

“ That is why I said that, NNPC with its inaction are part of this problem. I want to believe that they are the people aiding and abbeting these vandals. How can some vandals put everybody in this nation into problem? Just look at dead bodies littering the place.

“There is no other access to the pipeline location except this waterway and these vandals armed with sophisticated weapons.  What can the police and other security agencies do? This is not to say that I’m in anyway supporting the activities of the vandals.

“I even understand that that was the same spot where there 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 the end of March, you will not see anything here again. We would have started erecting the platform. They will put CCTV there and there will be a control room.

“NNPC has been inconsistent.  If they want to stop vandalisation in this Ogun State, I don’t know of any other state, they should come and we”ll rub 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 authorities like I have been doing before. This is not good for us as a nation. Everytime, they would say that vandals have done this and that, what have they (NNPC) done. Some people will be in Abuja blowing big grammars, very ineffective.”

However, the Federal Government has been blamed for the recurrent pipeline explosion within the petroleum product distribution networks of NNPC, after another explosion was recorded at Arepo  at the weekend, where about 30 lives were reportedly lost.

In a telephone chat with Nigerian Tribune on Sunday, the Chairman, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Mr Olumide Ogunmade, blamed the Federal Government and its security agencies for not providing enough security to guard the pipeline networks.

“The government should live up to its responsibility by providing adequate security for the pipelines because of their importance to distribution of petrol. One may become suspicious of these frequent attacks on petroleum pipelines. Maybe some people are benefiting from it because the cost of repair of these pipelines after vandalism is more than the cost of buying about 20 military tanks to provide 24-hour surveillance for these pipelines.

“The saboteurs should also think of the economic implications of these activities, which include loss of revenue, hardship on citizens and loss of precious lives which should be of utmost concern to us all.

“It is going to affect supply, no doubt,” he reiterated.

In August 2012, suspected vandals ruptured the System 2B petroleum pipeline that transports over 11 million litres of premium motor spirit (PMS) daily to other western states of the country.

The suspected vandals opened fire on officials of the Petroleum Product Marketing Company (PPMC) who went to repair the pipeline and killed about six of the officials.

The vandalism resulted in scarcity of petrol within Lagos State and its neighbouring states.

It also resulted in traffic gridlock occasioned by high volume of petroleum tankers loading petrol from Apapa and other private depots to outside Lagos State.

Barely one week after the Arepo pipeline was repaired, another pipeline was vandalised at Ijeododo area of Lagos State, resulting into temporary shut of the pipeline, Mosinmi and Ejigbo depots respectively.

 Efforts to get reactions from NNPC spokesman, Mr Fidel Pepple failed, as calls put to his line were not picked.