Mkpoikana Udoma
11 March 2018, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt — As a way of curbing the further degradation of the Niger Delta environment, a group known and called the Mediators for Growth Foundation, MGF, has cautioned youths in the region on the economic and environmental dangers of oil theft and petroleum pipelines vandalism.
The group made the disclosure during a one-day seminar on Community Sensitization and Awareness Programme against pipeline vandalism, oil theft, sabotage, illegal bunkering and refining of petroleum products in the Niger Delta region.
The leader of the group, Mr. Bestman Nnadi, said the programme was imperative to save the Niger Delta environment from further degradation, adding that lives of people in the region were endangered by the activities of oil thieves.
He also cautioned misguided youths of the region to shun the stealing of petroleum products, because it affects the nation’s economy and immediate environment of the region.
Nnadi, who wondered why people to form various groups to destroy oil installations, said the programme was designed for the youths in the region to teach them the negative effects of destroying oil facilities.
According to him, “Pipeline vandalism and illegal refining of petroleum products have a lot of implications on the environment and on the people. To rebuild these oil facilities is more difficult than to build them.
“When we keep vandalizing, our environment is affected and soon it will lead to hunger because people cannot plant on a polluted land. So it will be proper to shun the act.
“What do we achieve in destroying facilities that help our economy? It is our duty to create peace in the Niger Delta. If we say we are fighting for our rights, it must not be by destroying economic facilities,” Nnadi said.
Also speaking, the Research and Project Officer of Social Action, Mr. Dumnamene Fyneface, lamented that the entire water body in the Niger Delta region has been polluted as a result of oil theft.
Fyneface, speaking on the “Role of Communities in the Fight Against Pipeline Vandalism and Oil Theft in the Niger Delta” called on traditional rulers and other institutions to guide their subjects against crimes inimical to societal growth.
He stated that oil theft was not only carried out by deviant youths but heavily sponsored and aided by high profile individuals, which he said should be fished out and prosecuted to serve as deterrence.
