Senate Condemns Resurgence of Pipeline Vandalism in Niger Delta

The Senate has condemned the resurgence of pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta region.

Chairman Senate Committee Petroleum Upstream Senator Tayo Alasoadura while briefing newsmen on Thursday in Abuja called on vandals to desist from the dastardly Act capable of further retrogressing the economy.


``It has come to the notice of the senate the very unpatriotic act from vandals who have decided to blow up pipelines at this time when the nation is facing dwindling price of oil.

``The next to do when we are under this terrible situation when Nigerians are expecting more supply of petroleum product is to carry out acts that will lead to its shutting down.

``The Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries only started working few months ago, so I think the vandals should stop being a clog in the wheel of progress.

``It is not good enough for an administration to be fighting one war and waging another elsewhere. When will it have time to govern,” he queried.

He said it was disheartening that at a time when all hands should be on deck to revive the economy, some people are further sabotaging the effort of the present administration to bring sanity to the economy.

He appealed for calm, adding that relevant authorities were working assiduously to ensure that normalcy returned to the area.

Senator Bassey Gershom, Deputy, Senate Committee Chairman on Petroleum Upstream also stressed that those involved in the act could table their grievances in a more civilized manner rather take the law into their own hands.

``I want to appeal to our brothers in the Nigeria Delta to give peace a chance. If there is no revenue, no security how would government govern?

``So, we need the corporation `every Nigerian including those that are aggrieved. Let us give the Federal Government an opportunity to govern by allowing them that source of revenue.

``No matter what our grievances are I do not think that blowing up pipelines is the solution to the problem. We are aware of the problems and we are in the process of solving them,” he said.