The Nigerian military has responded to recent offensives of Niger Delta insurgents by launching an operation to the suspected hideout of embattled former militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) in Oporoza community, Warri South-West council area of Delta state.
Seven suspects were arrested while explosives, arms and ammunition were recovered.
It was gathered that men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) Operation Pulo Shield stormed the a place identified as ‘Tompolo’s location’ at about 2:30am and made the arrests and recovery of some explosives, various calibre of arms and ammunition.
An earlier operation on Friday had reportedly led to the arrest of one of those believed to be carrying out the various attacks on oil and gas facilities in the creeks of Delta state.
The suspect was reportedly handed over to the navy, which authority immediately flew his to Abuja for interrogation.
Tag: pipelines
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Pipeline explosions: Army arrest 7, recover explosives
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Group flays continued attacks on pipelines
A group, Concerned Professionals Congress (CPC), has condemned the attacks on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) oil and gas pipelines in Niger Delta by a militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA).
CPC urged youths, the elite and elders of the oil-rich region to stem the trend before it is too late.
The group expressed worries about the alleged intimidation of the militant gang with the issuance of a two-week ultimatum to owners and operators of oil companies to shut down, evacuate their workers and leave th region.
In a statement by its Coordinator, Tukur Tilde and Chief Media Strategist, Emeka Nwapa, CPC said the quit order was in bad taste because of its negative effects on the nation’s critical oil revenue.
It said the militants’ bombings would put pressure on the region, especially the masses, for whom the Federal Government hasd finalised series of critical developmental programmes.
The group urged traditional rulers, community leaders, elders, youths, students, the clergy, professional associations and the elders’ councils in the region to prevail on NDA to stop its attacks on oil pipelines.
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Governors take attack on pipelines, herdsmen’s menace to Buhari
The five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors in the South South geo-political zone yesterday resolved to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari over security issues in their area.
The resurgence of attacks on pipelines in the region especially in Delta State and the menace of herdsmen, who have been attacking farmers, were condemned by the governors who said they would take the issues up with the President.
They however did not state the time the meeting will hold at a briefing with reporters in Asaba after a meeting yesterday, attended by all of them.
Host Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, who spoke to reporters, was joined by Governors Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom) Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa) and Ben Ayade (Cross Rivers).
Okowa said the meeting also discussed how the PDP would do well in the Edo State governorship election. Edo is the only state controlled by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the zone and its governorship election is due in September.
Okowa said: “We discussed issues concerning our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). You will recall that our convention has been fixed to hold in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on May 21 and we are putting plans in place for that convention.
“The Chairman of the committee for the convention is Governor Wike of Rivers State and we use this medium to call on all our supporters and members of the PDP to desist from any form of crisis before, during and after the convention, we accepted as a party and the leadership of the party agreed that the national convention should hold at Port Harcourt. We stand by that resolution.
”We tried to map out strategies in order to strengthen the PDP in Edo State.”
Asked about the strategies to take the state from the APC: Okowa said: “We will not let the cat out of the bag because we are putting things in place at the moment”.
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‘Petroleum depot owners sabotaging oil pipelines’
An Ijaw group, Eye of Niger Delta (END), has accused the Petroleum Depot and Tank Farm Owners Association of sabotaging oil pipelines in the Niger Delta, saying this has contributed to polluting the environment and destroying aquatic life.
Speaking to reporters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital yesterday, the group threatened to protest against any economic sabotage in the region and to expose those behind the act of the alleged oil pipelines sabotage.
Its leader, Comrade Tari Victor Ben, said the group has written to the association to caution its members who indulge in the act of sabotaging the economy
He said some people are sabotaging President Muhammadu Buhari and ensure that he didn’t succeed, adding that the deceptive act of crumbling the nation’s economy has contributed to the continuous pollution of Niger Delta environment.
He advised Buhari to push for death sentence for the penetrators of oil pipelines sabotage in the region and other parts of the country. He promised his group’s support for the president and his anti-corruption crusade.
In a swift reaction, an executive member, Petroleum Depot and Tank Farm Owners Association Rivers State chapter, Chief Godwin Umeh, denied any wrong doing.
Chief Umeh who spoke on behalf of the association said the allegation is a disrespect to the group which has contributed to the growth of the economy. He urged the group to go ahead and arrest any suspect sabotaging the oil pipelines in the region.
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NLC condemns blowing-up of pipelines in Niger-Delta
The Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) on Sunday in Abuja condemned the renewed blowing-up of major oil and gas pipelines by suspected militants in the Niger-Delta region.
Mr Ayuba Wabba, NLC President, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the issue of national security should not be taken lightly. “Pipeline vandalism is highly condemnable; this should not be allowed to happen in a civilized society,’’ he said.
According to him, oil and gas pipeline vandalism will contribute largely to the air and water pollution of the region and reduce the revenue base of the country. Wabba said that pipeline vandalism was a threat to national security; therefore, the issue should not be taken lightly.
He advised the Niger-Delta militants to engage in dialogue with the Federal Government rather than confrontation in resolving issues. He urged the Federal Government to sustain the amnesty programme as it would serve as a means of addressing some of the challenges in the region.
“I hope that the renewed blowing-up of major oil and gas pipelines is not as a result of the ongoing probe of some political leaders in the region.
“ Our call is that the government should remain focus in its fight against corruption and it should not be tired by whatever pressure.
“We also want to appreciate what the security agencies have been able to do in terms of protecting the pipelines in the region, they should put in more efforts to contain the crisis, ”Wabba said.
He assured Nigerians that the NLC would give its support to the Federal Government to protect important installations in the region and the country at large.
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Ex-militant leaders: we didn’t blow up pipelines
Ex-militant leaders yesterday distanced themselves from the bombings of oil and gas pipelines in the Niger Delta region especially in Delta State.
The former warlords from the six Niger Delta states said none of them including Chief Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, was involved in the recent destruction of oil installations.
The government said the destruction of pipelines has reduced electricity supply by over 600mw while not less than N470milion is lost daily. It has already led to the shutting down of Port Harcourt and Kaduna Refineries.
Defence minister Mansur Dan-Ali and led a team of Defence chiefs to the site of the pipeline sabotage in Warri South, Delta state and vowed to deal with the culprits.
The attack on the pipelines started after a high court declared Tompolo wanted when he failed to appear to answer charges of money laundering and fraud levelled against him.
The ex-militant leaders, under the aegis of the Leadership Peace and Cultural Development Initiative (LPCDI) said unknown criminal elements, who were bent in causing disaffection between the region and the Federal Government, were behind the act.
The former creek warriors in a statement signed by their leader, Chief Reuben Wilson popularly known as General Pastor, said they were ready to partner with the government to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators.
Wilson said: “What happened was not carried out by ex-militants. The world should not label the ex-militants with evil deeds. These attacks were carried out by criminal elements.
“Some people claim Tompolo did it but he has come out to clear himself. Tompolo is a man known for his words. If he is involved in such things, he will come out to say it and give reasons. But he is not behind these recent attacks.”
Insisting that their investigations absolved Tompolo, Wilson, said no ex-militant leader would send anybody to blow pipelines in the region.
He said: “We call on the Federal Government to key in the ex-militant leaders into the protection and surveillance of oil pipelines in the region.
“The ex-militant leaders have important role to play with their knowledge of the creeks and water channels. Because we don’t carry arms, we expect that such security job will involve the security personnel
In Abuja, the Senate condemned the blowing up of oil and gas pipelines in the Niger Delta.
The upper chamber asked the Federal Government to take necessary measures to safe guard the pipelines in the interest of the country.
Chairmen of four committees of the Senate including committees on gas, petroleum (downstream and up stream) and media and public affairs stated this at a news conference. Chairman Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), Senator Tayo Alasoadura, who read the position paper of the committee, said the activities of the vandals who blew up the pipelines should be condemned in their entirety.
He said: “It is very disheartening that at a time when all hands should be on deck to revive the economy and ensure the survival of the country, some people could decide at this point in time in the history of the nation to further sabotage the efforts of the present administration to bring some sanity into our country.
“It is therefore apt for the Senate to condemn strongly and make an ambiguous statement about this dastardly act that portends to send the hands of the clock backwards”.
He noted that “this sabotage has led to the shutting down of two refineries that had just started working few months ago.
The militants, he said should give respite to Nigerians “so that we can see some governance.”
He added, “It is not good enough for an administration to be fighting one war there and they are waging another there, when will he have time to govern? So please help us appeal to them so that Nigeria can move forward.”
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Pipelines’ privatisation on course
The Federal Government has fashioned out plans that will enable it meet this month’s deadline set for the privatisation of the pipelines across the country, it was learnt at the weekend in Lagos.
The government’s plans also include aggressive fixing and surveillance of the pipelines to prevent any act of sabotage that may defeat the purpose for privatising the pipelines.
Sources close to one of the companies hired by the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) to provide a 24-hour surveillance of the pipelines, said the government is fixing the pipelines, and securing them in order make them attractive to prospective buyers.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Federal Government initiated the repair and surveillance programmes in order to achieve some secondary objectives.
The source said: “Based on my interaction with the management of the PPMC, I can tell you authoritatively that the government is serious with the issue of selling the pipelines to private entities, with proven track records of managing facilities that are previously owned by the state. Part of the seriousness is the issue of putting the pipelines in good condition to stimulate the confidence of investors.
“People may think that increased security network noticed around pipelines in the country was a fluke. No, it is not. It was introduced as part of efforts to provide a solid footing for the privatization of the pipelines across the country.”
Also, the Managing Director, PPMC, Mrs Esther Nmandi – Ogbue, said the government is putting in place modalities to repositioning the pipelines for growth.
She said the government is not leaving any stone unturned, in order to ensure that the pipelines are well managed and further benefit the operators, especially marketers, whose duty it is to sell fuel to consumers.
Ogbue, who spoke during a tour of pipeline in Ajebo area and Mosimi depot in Ogun State, said all hands are on deck to make the pipelines useful to stakeholders in the value chain
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, had in December last year, said the government is planning to privatise fuel pipelines in January this year.
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‘Deploy IT to secure pipelines against vandalism’
The Federal Government has been urged to deploy the tools of information technology (IT) to safeguard oil pipelines against vandalism across the country and safe the country huge cash that could be used to bridge existing infrastructure gaps in the country.
A don at the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, University of Lagos, Akoka Lagos, Imoize Agbotiname Lucky specifically recommended a new technology he called Distributed Sensing (DTS) and Fiber Optics which he said will promptly alert operators of should there be any attacks on the pipelines.
He said DTS is a technology that enables continuous, real-time measurements, adding that it is very effective, and can detect leaks to a precision of one metre. According to him, fiber cable replaces numerous discrete sensors and provides exact location of the leak.
Imoize who spoke at the 8th Africa Oil Trading and Logistics Downstream Expo in Lagos, told The Nation that pipeline vandalism has cost the country over ¦ 174.57 billion over the past 10 years with numerous fatalities each time there was an explosion on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC’s) pipelines. He noted that in the past, efforts had been made to eliminate pipeline vandalism by employing solutions such as burying the pipelines deeper into the ground but the menace still occurs.
Explaining the technology, he said DTS has features such as Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR). The OTDR is made up of five different sections including laser light source, coupler/splitter, optical sensor section, controller section, and display section. He noted that the conventional OTDR needs to be replaced with a novel OTDR system which consists of the transmitter section, the cable section, and the receiver section.
“Arduino microcontroller is used to trigger a signal generator circuit. The signal generator sends laser light pulse down the length of the fiber. OTDR measures the backscattered light which returns fiber optic cable. Data is relayed to an oscilloscope which plots a graph of the sampled data. A deviation from this baseline profile of any individual data point indicates a leak at that point,” he added.
He said it is cheap to implement the DTS technology, adding that because it is a new innovation, there is possibility of future improvement in equipment and further reduction in cost. “Current OTDR systems cost between $50,000 – $150,000, and our OTDR system will cost about $5000.
“We hope this increases the monitoring across pipelines in the nation, lead to reduction in losses incurred from pipeline damages. We hope also to improve on the concept to make it industrially acceptable, expand the technology to tackle the other issues related to pipeline vandalisation, and beyond the oil and gas industry,” he said.
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Eroded pipelines threaten community
Residents of Onicha-Amiyi in Isuikwuato Local Government Area of Abia State as well as other road users are concerned about their safety as two eroded pipelines are not only exposed to the elements but impacted daily by moving vehicles and pedestrians.
The people fear that the pipelines belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) could burst.
“If the danger is averted there may be no fire outbreak and lives will be saved, but if not, then we should be ready for anything,” a resident.
At the site, the secretary of Oguduasa Consultative Assembly (OCA), Dr Sunday Okanta said that the assembly has been calling on the owners of the pipeline, the NNPC to take urgent attention to no avail.
Okanta said that the danger posed by the exposed NNPC pipeline should be attended to by the owners of the pipe as it is capable of busting at any point in time due to exposure to sun and rain and could also go up in flames.
He explained that the traditional rulers from the area have made several moves to draw the attention of NNPC to the danger being posed by the exposed erosion pipeline, “But their efforts have not yielded any positive result from the NNPC”.
Okanta said that the OCA has decided to throw its options wider by calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to step into the issue by giving a presidential directive to the NNPC to intervene without any further delay to avert danger.
He said, “We are also calling on the state governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu to come and do palliative measures that will stop the exposure of the pipeline, including the member representing our people at the State House of Assembly, Hon. Mrs Uloma Onuoha and Senator Mao Ohuabunwa representing Abia North at the senate to lend a voice to save our people”.
A motorist Johnson Kanu said that those involved should come to the aid of the people of Oguduasa to save them from being cut from their kith and kin as the road will soon cut them off, while NNPC should do the needful to avoid pipeline explosion like it did in 2003.
Kanu said that with the high level of poverty in the country that the people may be tempted to break the pipeline in an attempt to steal the petroleum products from the pipeline, “This could be averted if those concerned cover the pipeline and stop it from being exposed and make it less attractive to hungry residents”.
An indigene of the area, Asonye Chimere said that government should come to their help by attending to the various erosion sites identified in the area, stressing that it is one of the ways to cover up the exposed NNPC oil pipeline once the erosion sites are checked.
He recalled that in 2003 that there was pipeline explosion around the area which consumed many people, adding that the community cannot afford to lose its residents and indigenes to constant pipeline explosion because of the negligence on the side of NNPC.
Isuikwuato local government in Abia State is an erosion prone area of the state with several identified erosion sites that require several billions of naira to control, it could be noted that former President Olusegun Obsanajo had visited the area with a promise to do something which was never done till date.
The Nation could recall that way back in 2003, that several people lost their lives at a pipeline explosion which occurred when people from Amiyi-Uhu and its environ went to scoop diesel from a pipe that was broken by pipeline vandals.
The vandals after stealing the quantity of diesel they required and could not cover the broken pipeline left it to spill its products, leading to scavengers coming to have a share of the national cake.
During the process one of those involved in the scooping of the petroleum product tried to kick start his motorcycle which sparked light and ignited the entire area leading to fire consuming several hundreds of people.
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OPC’s pipelines protection ‘contract’ lapses
The Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC)’s ‘contract’ to protect petroleum pipelines in the Southwest has lapsed.
A text message from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to OPC leaders informed them of the end, on June 15, of the N9 billion contract awarded in March by the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
The timing of the contract was condemned by Nigerians because it was considered a tool to achieve cheap political points by the then Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government.
But former Minister of Petroleum Resources Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke justified it by saying Nigeria loses about $5 billion yearly to pipeline vandalism.
Yesterday, a source at the Petroleum Ministry said the NNPC did not withdraw the multi-billion naira contract given to the OPC.
The source noted that the contract was a three-month deal, which ended by midnight yesterday.
“Unfortunately, the tenure of the government that awarded the contract has ended and nobody knows if the new administration would renew it.
“According to the source, the contract was awarded to OPC as had been done to such groups in the Niger Delta.
“The Federal Government gave militia groups contracts to protect the pipelines alongside the police and other security agencies.
“The renewal of such contract hinges on performance.
“By midnight yesterday, the contract would have elapsed. It is a three-month contract. It was awarded in March.
“The Federal Government’s intention was that the OPC working with the police and other security agencies would reduce pipeline vandalism.
“Pipeline monitoring and protection contracts have been awarded to other groups in the Niger Delta, so the government decided to give the OPC the contract to protect the pipelines in the Southwest, especially the Lagos, Arepo and Mosimi stretch.
“It is not NNPC that cancelled the contract, it just elapsed.
“It is still possible that the contract may be renewed but the concern is that nobody knows what the new administration will do.
“Besides, the major concern is that the contract has not been paid for. Even if it will not be renewed, nobody knows whether the job already done will be paid for.
“Also the board of the NNPC didn’t approve the contract initially, thus compounding the challenges in the contract.”