The Federal Government of Nigeria has been called on to impose tougher penalties against pipeline vandalism and apprehended vandals.
The call was made in Lagos yesterday by the South-West Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo.
Alhaji Korodo claimed that some known vandals still walk the streets freely after their arrest, he added that such action or inaction by the Federal Government and security operatives was ridiculous as vandals would begin to threaten those who provided information leading up to their initial arrest.
“The punishment for vandalism of petroleum pipelines is weak. One discovered that if these vandals are caught within two to three months, he or she will become a free man.
“These criminals will now come back and start threatening those that gave information for their arrest.
“As the chairman of NUPENG South-West, I have led a team to arrest pipeline vandals but when I realised that after few months, those vandals will come back as freemen, I withdrew.
“They used to come and meet me and would say: Chief, we know where your children are schooling; we know your wife’s shop; if you leak our secret again, we will kidnap them.
Alhaji Korodo also implored the Federal Government to thoroughly investigate the NNPC and root out the bad eggs among its officials, he claimed some of the NNPC officials are in collaborative efforts with vandals to siphon Petroleum products.
“In the past, if Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, (PPMC) pumped 500,000 litres of water, all the water would get to destination without a drop siphoned.
“But, today, if PPMC pumps 500,000 litres of petroleum, it will be very hard to receive 50,000 litres out of it. About 450,000 litres would be siphoned by these vandals. How do they know the actual time they are pumping these products if not that there are saboteurs among officials of PPMC?”