The Federal Government says it has agreed to re-engage persons from communities in the Niger Delta region to protect the oil pipelines.
This, it said, is to find a lasting solution to the renewed militancy in the region.
Also, the government promised to restructure the amnesty programme so as to address the critical issue of neglect by both the government and international oil companies, as claimed by the inhabitants of the region.
In a statement issued on Thursday by the spokesman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Garba Deen Muhammad, it was revealed that the FG has resolved to work with stakeholders from the Niger Delta region to stop the recent upsurge in attacks on critical oil and gas installations, and to ensure security, stability and economic development of the area.
Since the renewed attack by the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, Nigeria’s crude production has dropped from about 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) to around 1.4 million bpd.
The Muhammadu Buhari administration had, before now, threatened military action against the perpetrators who it had described as economic saboteurs.
On Thursday, a meeting was held in Abuja between the FG and prominent Niger Delta leaders and other stakeholders.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and group managing director of the NNPC, Ibe Kachikwu, expressed the government’s readiness to check the resurgence of pipeline sabotage in the region.
Kachikwu said all the stakeholders resolved that solutions to the incessant attacks on oil and gas pipelines are within the communities, stressing that communities were now saddled with the responsibility of ensuring protection of pipelines within their domain.
Accordingly, government resolved that “all the states in the region would nominate four or five representatives that would work hand-in-hand with security agencies to secure oil facilities in their respective states.”
The minister further stated that violence was not an option in resolving the problems of the Niger Delta and that all threats from the region should end henceforth.
He also noted that the Amnesty Programme needed to be restructured in order to address the critical issue of neglect by the government and international oil companies.
At the meeting were Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole; national security adviser (NSA), Maj. General Mohammed Babagana Monguno (rtd); minister for Niger Delta, Usani Uguru; minister of state for agriculture, Sen. Heneiken Lokpobiri; coordinator, Amnesty Programme, Brigadier General Paul Boroh (rtd), and stakeholders from the seven Niger Delta states of Edo, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta and Ondo states.
