Vice
President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday described pipeline vandals in the Niger Delta
as ‘terrorists’, who should be ‘severely dealt with’ and not tolerated.
The
vice president made the comment in Warri after visiting the strategic gas
pipeline at Forcados export terminal in Burutu council area of Delta State.
Professor
Osinbajo, who advocated that all Nigerians must support President Muhammadu
Buhari’s resolve to give the Boko Haram treatment to oil and gas facilities and
pipelines vandals, noted that the January 14, 2016, sabotage on the pipeline at
Forcados has resulted to the unprecedented power cuts that had been experienced
in recent times.
“As
you know, pipelines vandals are probably as bad as any type of terrorists or
saboteurs and the danger posed to lives caused by pipelines vandals. All of us
must agree with the president that the vandals must be treated with the most
severe manner and should not be tolerated at all.
“So,
I agree entirely that pipelines vandals should not be tolerated under no
circumstances.
“Aside
from the gas problem, there is also the problem of losing thousands of barrels
of production. We are not able to produce as much as we ought to. About 250,000
barrels are lost per day. We are losing large sums of money daily. We look for
alternative, while we look to repair the pipelines.
“We
would have to deploy even sophisticated weapons to ensure we contain the
vandalism, overhaul security and permanent pipeline security force might also
be an option to look at.
“The
damage done has led to low supply of gas and most of the power plants are not
functioning at maximum capacity,” Osinbajo said.
Delta
State governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, who was on the Vice President’s entourage to
the site, said works were on with the repairs, which completion date had been
tentatively put to the end of May this year.
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