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Tag: vandalism

  • Lagos moves to criminalise power theft, vandalism

    Lagos moves to criminalise power theft, vandalism

    •Lights up 500-km road in one year

    HARD  times await those     emgaing in power theft and vandalism of electric poles and cables, the Lagos State government warned yesterday.

    The government promised to threat such people as criminals. It said criminalising  power theft will go a long way in tackling the menace headlong.

    The Commissioner for Energy & Mineral Resources, Olawale Oluwo, said the government was worried that its efforts at ensuring that the streets in the Centre of Excellence are well lit was frustrated by cable thieve and vandals.

    Oluwo spoke at his ministry’s news conference as part of activities commemorating the second year in office of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.

    He said the government had noticed a trend where some electricity infrastructures are damaged by hit and run motorists, saying that such was detrimental to the quest of the state to light up  every nook and cranny of the state.

    He, however, assured that the government would soon come up  with a law under its Embedded Power Initiative to protect public lighting infrastructures from such destruction and vandalism

    He said: “We have noticed this vandalisation in three ways. The first one is that by weekends, between Friday and Sunday, we see a lot of vehicles knock down our electricity poles and we suffer the consequences.

    “So, we make sure that each time we apprehend them we make them to pay fines because we cannot prosecute them under a law that is not existing. So, the Embedded Power Programme would come with its own Power Theft Law and we would try to embed this street lighting protection under it. So, until the law, we cannot prosecute them, we can only continue to fine them to pay for the street light poles they knock down.”

    The commissioner also restated government’s commitment to meet the electricity needs of residents and ensure regular power supply not only for industrial clusters, but also to residential apartments.

    He said that beyond powering its own public facilities with the established Independent Power Plants (IPP) delivering a combined 47.5 MW, the state government plans to stimulate investment through this initiative with the generation of 3000MW of power through accelerated deployment of embedded, or distributed power plants in strategic locations within three to five years to drive the economy and bring additional electricity to millions of homes and businesses.

    Oluwo said: “The state government is therefore in partnership with major international and local industry key players in the power sector to provide a platform for uninterrupted power supply to its citizenry. The Lagos State government, in collaboration with the private sector, is using the strength of its balance sheet to guarantee the deployment of off-grid modular plants of between 20MW to 100MW strategically spread within clusters close to reliable sustainable sources of electricity and power evacuation substation for the exclusive benefit of Lagos residents.

    “Solar energy project is another initiative by the Lagos State Government, focused on implementing power solutions for public facilities. This project aim at delivering a total of 4.59 MV of sustainable power to rural, riverine and public boarding secondary schools, 172 of them and 11 primary health centres located within the rural areas in Ikorodu, Badagry, Epe and Ibeju-Lekki,” he said.

    He said in the year under review, the government through its “Light up Lagos Initiative”, achieved 500-km of streetlight installations in its bid to light up the nooks and crannies of the state, while over 100-km length of street lighting installations are on-going at various locations.

    Oluwo said: “In a bold step, the government has taken over and adopted the management of all street lights within Lagos irrespective of legacy ownership. In this instance, street lights, hitherto controlled by local government areas, Ministry of Works & Infrastructures, LAMATA and those of Federal Agencies like FERMA and FAAN are now under the management of the state government.

    “The essence is to ensure uniformity of standard, excellent service delivery and provision of a more holistic and sustainable approach to monitoring and maintaining of the installations.

    “It is gratifying to mention that in a bid to save cost, the Lagos State government has been able to connect some of the street lights to the Alausa, Mainland, Island and Lekki Independent Power Plants; while efforts are on to connect others to the Independent Power Plants.”

  • ‘Oil subsidy scammers nurturing vandalism, militancy, crude oil theft’

    The oil subsidy scammers, who benefitted immensely from fake importation of petroleum products are nurturing vandalism,  militancy, crude oil theft and the unwarranted disruptions in the sector, to the level being witnessed, especially in the Niger Delta.

    The disclosure was made yesterday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, by the Convener of the Second Edition of the Save Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry (SNOAGI) Roundtable, Dr. Brown Ogbeifun.

    The roundtable was organised by the African Initiative for Transparency, Accountability and Responsible Leadership (AFRITAL).

    Project SNOAGI was launched last year, as a veritable platform for bringing stakeholders together to interact, brainstorm and make prescriptions on how to improve the efficiency of the oil and gas operations, thereby assisting government in bringing sanity to the sector.

    Ogbeifun said: “Most of the motherless US Dollars,  British Pounds, Euro and Naira found in wardrobes, farms and soak-away pits are definitely primary or secondary products of mismanaged oil funds, which might explain why the oil industry has witnessed gross underdevelopment.

    “The revelations emanating from the Malabu oil deal, the brazen cash withdrawals from oil money accounts to pursue non-value addition to the good of our hydrocarbon development are indeed very sad.

    “There is no doubt that there has been lack of investors’ confidence in the oil industry, as policies and laws that would have protected their investments are not seriously addressed.

    “The issues of over regulation through multiple regulatory agencies, multiple taxation, global and local oil politics have made it an intractable possibility for Nigeria to reach it’s optimum productivity.”

    The convener also stated that Nigeria was ripe enough to be self sufficient in producing all the necessary derivatives from crude oil.

    Ogbeifun noted that compounding the parlous state of the oil and gas sector came the sabotaging of the pipelines by the militants, which he insisted almost crippled operations in the sector.

    He said: “Paradoxically, we export our crude oil and create refining capacities for other economies, at the detriment of the Nigerian state. Why must we continue to export our mineral resources in exchange for finished products in the oil and gas industry?

    “Our leaders have consistently displayed lack of political will to drive the transformation imperatives to a logical conclusion. That is why we are still talking of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), 17 years after it started its journey.

    “No country treats its critical reforms the way we do. Not passing the PIB has led to losses in trillions of naira, loss of investment opportunities, inability to realise our optimum capacity utilisation and the inability to end gas flaring, which was to have ended in 2008.

    “The PIB might not be a perfect document, just as it is all over the world. All we need is an enduring dialogue process and the will of steel by government to drive the process to its logical conclusion. No matter the drawbacks, the PIB contains many sections that would have greatly enhanced the hydrocarbon potential of Nigeria.”

    The convener also stated that mediation was very effective in the resolution of knotty conflicts, while pleading that the ongoing dialogue process between top officials of the Federal Government and Niger Delta militants/leaders should be sustained.

    He noted that while government was seeking solutions to all the challenges in the Niger Delta, all parties should sheathe their swords,  show good faith and respect for one another, declaring that no meaningful development would take place in an atmosphere of chaos and anarchy.

    Ogbeifun added that the pronouncements of the Federal Government’s top officials on the setting up of modular refineries in the Niger Delta and the open confession that the crude oil and gas-rich region deserved a better deal, showed that there were still honourable men in the corridors of power in Nigeria.

  • ‘We want to kick out vandalism’

    ‘We want to kick out vandalism’

    Members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) from the Southeast gathered in Aba, the commercial nerve of the state to fight pipeline vandalism through football. SUNNY NWANKWO reports

    They may not look like your regular first 11 but they believe they can dribble, score and help win the fight against pipeline vandalism. The Maiden System 2E Unity Oil and Gas Legendary Football Tournament is among the latest developments in Aba, the commercial centre of Abia State.

    It was organised by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) in collaboration with the Association of United Ex-Sportsmen, Vindima Sports and Media, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

    What has football got to do with fighting vandalism? Plenty. Football is a very popular sport, and while the players dazzle with their dribbles, passes and shots, the message is sent out to the audience that pipeline vandalism, oil product adulteration are criminal activities that no one should engage in.

    While sitting in for President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo visited Abia State, saying that vandalism was one issue the government would  tackle decisively. Some stakeholders have already started tackling it in some innovative ways.

    Speaking at the occasion, Chairman of the Organising Committee and National Secretary, IPMAN monitoring committee, Chief Lawrence Kanu, said, we are organising this match to educate the masses on the need to stop vandalism of petroleum products. Football is a sport that brings everybody together. So, we are using the game of football to draw attention to pipeline vandalism. We want to use football to communicate the message to the world that vandalism is not in the interest of our country. Adulteration of petroleum products is not for our own good. Again, we don’t want anybody to sell above the approved pump price of N145. All sharp practices in the petroleum sector must stop.”

    Kanu further stated that the significance of the football competition was to encourage youths in the Southeast and Southsouth to shun pipeline vandalism, hostage taking and other acts which adversely affect the petroleum industry.

    While addressing participating teams which included Fegge All Stars Onitsha, Port Harcourt Refinery FC, IPMAN FC Calabar; Makurdi Depot FC, Enugu City Fathers FC, Abayi Umuocham FC, and Osisioma Depot Host Community FC, Kanu disclosed that the champions will get N1million, runner-up N.6million and second runner-up N.3m.

    The opening match of the competition was attended by the representatives of IPMAN, NNPC, other stakeholders in the petroleum industry, Transition Committee Chairman, Osisioma Ngwa council, Chief Ugochukwu Nwachukwu, His Royal Highness Ezekwesili Maduagwuna, and a host of others from various communities.

     

  • Electricity firm seeks support against vandalism

    Electricity firm seeks support against vandalism

    The Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC) has urged members of the public to help contain the activities of vandals, which are affecting the power supply in the zone.
    The Senior Corporate Communication Officer of the company, Mr Kingsley Nkemneme, made the call in an interview with reporters in Yola.
    Nkemneme said in the past two months, no fewer than 10 transformers were vandalised.
    “Our properties worth millions of naira were vandalised by insurgents, which we are trying to replace only to be faced with this raising problem of vandals,” he said.
    Nkemneme hailed the effort of Mijili community in Hong Local Government Area of Adamawa who assisted in arresting a vandal, and urged other communities to emulate them.
    “We want to urge the public to be active participants in helping us to serve them better.
    “Whoever they saw around our facility who claimed to be our staff must tender genuine ID card of YEDC.
    “The public need to know that while we suffer economic losses due to activities of vandals, which is pure economic sabotage, they (public) experience hardship due to lack of power supply caused by the vandals,” he said.
    On shortage of pre-paid metres, Nkemneme assured that the company was set to acquire 130,000 metres under its first phase of metering for the year.

    He also said the company had recently installed 240 single phase high voltage transformers to boost power supply in the zone.
    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the YEDC is covering Adamawa, Borno, Yobe and Taraba states.

  • Electricity firm seeks public support against vandalism

    The Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC) has urged members of the public to help in containing the growing activities of vandals affecting steady power supply in the zone.

    The Senior Corporate Communication Officer of the company, Mr Kingsley Nkemneme, made the call Friday in Yola in an interview with newsmen.

    Nkemneme said that within the past two months no fewer than 10 transformers were vandalised.

    “Our properties worth millions of naira were vandalised by insurgents, which we are trying to replace only to be faced with this raising problem of vandals.”

    Nkemneme lauded the effort of Mijili community in Hong Local Government Area of Adamawa who assisted in arresting a vandal, and urged other communities to emulate them.

    “We want to urge the public to be active participants in helping us to serve them better.

    “Whoever they saw around our facility who claimed to be our staff must tender genuine ID card of YEDC.

    “The public need to know that while we suffer economic losses due to activities of vandals, which is pure economic sabotage, they (public) experience hardship due to lack of power supply caused by the vandals,” he said.

    On shortage of pre-paid metres, Nkemneme assured that the company was set to acquire 130,000 metres under its first phase of metering for the year.

    He also said that the company had recently installed 240 single phase high voltage transformers to boost power supply in the zone.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the YEDC is covering Adamawa, Borno, Yobe and Taraba states

  • Pipeline vandalism destroying economy, says NSCDC

    Pipeline vandalism destroying economy, says NSCDC

    The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has described pipeline vandalism and illegal refineries as economic sabotage and environment hazard capable of destroying a nation.

    NSCDC called on communities in the Niger Delta to volunteer more information on activities of pipeline vandals to enable the Corps flush them out.

    Its spokesperson Mr Emmanuel Okeh disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

    He said the Commandant-General of the Corps, Mr Abdullahi Muhammadu had ordered NSCDC officials to evolve new strategies and redouble their efforts in tackling the menace.

    Okeh said that more than 20 illegal refineries and 100 suspects were recently arrested in the region following intelligence report.

    He explained that the NSCDC had also established a 24-hour Command and Control Centre in Abuja as part of plans to enhance its surveillance on the pipelines.

    The spokesperson also stressed the importance of the cooperation and support of host communities to enable the NSCDC improves its operation in the region.

    “With the support and cooperation of host communities in the Niger Delta, I can assure you that our operations will be enhanced.

    “We need all the necessary information on the activities and hideouts of these vandals from the host communities,” he said.

    Okeh said NSCDC would continue to collaborate with other security agencies like the Navy to stem the tide of vandals in the Niger Delta.

  • NCC seeks NSDC’s partnership to end vandalism

    The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is seeking partnership with the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to put an end to incessant vandalism of telecoms infrastructure.

    NCC Executive Commissioner (Stakeholders Management) Mr. Sunday Dare, who spoke at the NCC Headquarters in Abuja, during a meeting of the two organisations, said the meeting was a follow up to the previous one hosted by the National Security Adviser (NSA) Maj- Gen Babagana Monguno (rtd) in December last year for both agencies to deliberate on workable ways to protect critical national infrastructure.

    Mr Dare, who represented the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, at the meeting, said it was in line with the previous meeting where the  NCC expressed its willingness to work with the NSCDC on ways to protect telecoms sector critical national infrastructures such as base transmission stations (BTS), optic fibre cables (OFC), masts and others.

    He added that the partnership will also address the activities of criminals that trade on pre-registered Subscribers Identification Module (SIM) cards because of its security implications.

    According to the Executive Commissioner, although the NSCDC men have been manning NCC Emergency Communications Centres (ECC), before now, “we are sure that you will support in the protection of the critical infrastructure on the directive of the NSA”.

    NSCDC Acting Deputy Commandant-General (Protection of Critical Infrastructure), Mr. Amos Andekein, said the agency will replicate the success it recorded in protecting oil and gas pipelines nationwide in the telecoms sector.

    He explained that protection of critical national infrastructure was part of the NSCDC core mandate as enshrined in its Act. “We are therefore, willing to do just that for the telecommunications sector like we have been doing for the oil and gas sector, protecting oil pipelines and (and ensuring safe) maritime operations,” he said.

    He explained, however, that it will require a lot of enlightenment for people to know the dangers of vandalising telecom equipment and the laws against it.

    Head, Legal and Regulatory Services (NCC), Mrs. Yetunde Akinloye said the laws were being fine-tuned with a view to having successful prosecution of defaulters.

    A private member bill is in the offing and when passed, prosecution will be a lot easier, Akinloye added.

    Assistant Commandant-General, Mr. Jonathan Iyogho, said the NSCDC was willing to cooperate with the NCC in protecting critical national infrastructure, adding that collaboration is a key element in achieving a success.

    NSCDC Legal Adviser, Mrs. Yemisi Salako, said to prosecute arrested offenders, the offence has to be known to the law and above all, there must be witnesses willing to testify.

    When NSCDC officials make arrest, prosecution is done by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, she maintained.

  • Fed Govt loses $65.4m to vandalism

    Fed Govt loses $65.4m to vandalism

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, said the Federal Government lost $65.4 million to oil vandals just as the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) shared N400 billion, as its December allocation.
    Adeosun said the allocation was N13.1 billion more than what the three tiers of government shared as revenue for November 2016.
    She said the N400 billion was distributed under “four distributable sub-heads”.
    They are statutory allocation where the sum of N224.88 billion was allocated; Value Added Tax (VAT) N79.27 billion, exchange gain N52.84 billion and excess Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) N42.99 billion.
    From the statutory allocations, the minister said after deducting cost of collections to the revenue generating agencies, the Federal Government got N105.76 billion, states N53.64 billion and local government councils N41.35 billion.
    In addition, she said the sum of N15.5 billion was given to the oil producing states based on the 13 per cent derivation principle.
    For VAT allocation, Adeosun said the federal government received N11.4 billion, states N38 billion while Local Government Councils got N26.63 billion.
    Adeosun said that the federation generated N145.6 billion as mineral revenue and N103.1 billion as non-Mineral revenue.
    The minister said the excess crude account now has a balance of $2.45 billion.
    Adeosun said that the Force Majeure at Forcados, Qua Iboe and Brass terminals was still impacting negatively on revenue generation.
    She added that there was revenue decline of 65.4 million dollars in oil export sales due to a drop in production volume of 1.39 million barrels.
    Also, Mahmoud Yunusa, chairman, forum of finance commissioners in Nigeria, said states were determined to keep improving their internally generated revenue.
    “Low federation revenue has become a blessing in disguise to us. Initially almost all the states relied heavily on FAAC,” he said.

    “But now, because the money is no longer there, it has forced us to look inwards at the opportunities and potentials in our respective states and begin to explore them.
    “We had to look at cutting cost in running governance and blocking all revenue leakages.”
    Yunusa said most of the states have been able to improve their IGR through improved tax collection method and increased tax base.

  • Vandalism: NNPC raises security advisory council

    Vandalism: NNPC raises security advisory council

    THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has outlined plans to establish a security advisory council to bring a lasting solution to the perennial problem of pipeline vandalism and sundry security challenges bedeviling the oil and gas industry.

    Speaking when the management of Media Trust Limited visited his office, NNPC Group Managing Director Dr. Maikanti Baru said there was a need to evolve new measures to bring an end to pipeline vandalism, which, he described as a major threat to the nation’s economy.

    Baru said the security advisory council would involve critical stakeholders, who include security agents, Niger Delta leaders, international oil companies chiefs (IOCs), which would address security and host community agitations.

    The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, who made this known in a statement yesterday, quoted Baru as saying: “We want to passionately appeal to those behind indiscriminate acts of infrastructure vandalism to put an end forthwith to these despicable acts, which are a great threat to the economy, the eco-system and energy security of the country.”

    He explained that since coming on board, he has ensured that the NNPC was run as a FACTI-based Corporation (Focused, Accountable, Competitive and a Transparent organisation conducting its business with Integrity.)

    He noted that the corporation’s monthly operational and financial reports were always in the public sphere for all to see, adding that it was this new openness and transparency that has earned the NNPC rave reviews and accolades among Nigerians.

    “With the consistent release of our monthly financial and operational reports, the Nigerian Extractive Industries & Transparency Initiative (NEITI) recently commended us for embracing openness, subjecting our activities to greater public scrutiny and providing real-time information about the state of the nation’s oil and gas sector,” Baru said.

    He explained that through his 12 Business Focus Areas (BUFA), the corporation has kick-started the implementation of policies to place the organisation on the path of growth and profitability.

    The GMD explained that aside increasing the nation’s oil and gas reserves to 37 billion barrels of oil and 192 trillion cubic feet of gas, the corporation has also commenced exploratory activities in the Gongola Basin with the aim of growing oil and gas reserves and taking advantage of low oil prices, which make inland exploration cost effective.

    Baru hailed the management of Media Trust Limited for its factual reportage of the corporation’s activities and operations

    “You have remained a leading voice in the fight against unwholesome activities of crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism and sabotage of the nation’s oil and gas installations. We will like to see this gesture continue” he stated.

  • NPDC loses N1.5tr to assets’ vandalism

    NPDC loses N1.5tr to assets’ vandalism

    The Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) has lost N1.5 trillion to attacks on its facilities from January till date.

    NPDC is the exploration and production arm of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

    The Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC, Dr Maikanti Baru, who made this known at the opening ceremony of the 2016 NNPC Security Awareness Week, lamented the rising spate of criminality in the oil and gas industry has resulted in the loss of the much needed revenue.

    He said: “At the industry level, we are all conversant with the seriousness and frequency with which national assets in form of pipelines, flow stations and others are vandalised and crude oil and white products stolen with impunity.

    Baru said from January to date, for example, “NPDC alone recorded 59 security incidents resulting in crude production shut down/deferment and revenue loss of over N1.5 trillion.”

    The NNPC GMD’s comments were unveiled in a statement endorsed by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu.

    In the forum tagged; NNPC Security: A Task for All Stakeholders, Baru urged all Nigerians to do everything possible to help protect the national assets, adding that governments at various levels were doing much to fight criminality and that success can only be achieved when all stakeholders imbibe the consciousness that security was a task for everyone.

    Baru said: “At corporate level, you are all aware that the first item on my 12 Focus Areas is security. This is in recognition of the imperative that without assurances of safety, NNPC, the oil and gas industry, and indeed the country cannot achieve appreciable growth to assure citizens of decent and productive lives.”

    The GMD also used the opportunity to launch the Corporation’s Kidnap for Ransom Policy to raise staff awareness on the need to avoid actions that predispose them to being kidnapped, especially at a time like this when kidnapping for ransom has become very rampant.

    Baru charged staff to participate actively in the activities of the Security Awareness Week to imbibe ideas that could help them not only in personal security, but also in the protection of national assets.