09 October 2012, Sweetcrude, ABA—ABIA State Government has called on traditional rulers of pipeline host-communities to identify individuals in their domain who perpetrated pipeline vandalism for appropriate sanctions.
The state Commissioner for Petroleum and Solid Minerals Development, Chief Don Ubani, gave the order in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, Monday, in Aba.
It would be recalled that some persons perished while attempting to scoop petroleum products from a vandalised pipeline at Umueke village in the Umueze Autonomous Community of Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area of the state.
“Henceforth, any traditional ruler in whose community the PPMC pipeline is vandalised should be prepared to identify such hoodlums for appropriate action by government or face the consequence of nonchalance.”
Ubani urged hospitals or traditional healers currently treating any suspected pipeline vandal to report such persons to law enforcement authorities.
He said: “Any medical practitioner or traditional healer who fails to heed to this clarion call will surely be regarded as an accomplice and will definitely be treated as such.”
NAN reports that Mr Haruna Momoh, Managing Director of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, PPMC, said at the re-opening of the NNPC Aba depot in July that it lost products worth N7.6 billion to pipeline vandals between the Port Harcourt and Aba segments since 2007.
