Churches and Mosques are being used as operational bases by oil thieves, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company CEO, Melee Kyari has cried out.
Mr. Kyari was speaking during a ministerial briefing in Abuja. He said pipelines have been connected illegally around those places of worship in some communities in the oil producing areas.“And the reason is very simple. For some of the lines, for instance, from Warri to Benin, we haven’t operated that line for 15 years. Every molecule of product that we put get lost. And of course, you remember the sad incident of fire incident very close to Warri, close to Sapele that killed so many people.
“So, we had to shut it down and as we speak, ladies and gentlemen, the level of losses that we have on our product pipeline, and I’m sure you may have seen it and I’ll invite you at the right time so we can take a look at it jointly.
“You remember that Lagos area. When a fire outbreak happened in one of our pipelines, we discovered that some of the pipelines were actually connected to individuals’ homes. And not only that, and with all sensitivity to our religious beliefs, you know, some of the pipelines and some of the products that we found, are actually in churches and mosques.
“That means that everybody is involved. There is no way you will take products, bring in trucks in populated neighborhoods, load them and leave without everybody else knowing about it. That everybody includes members of the community, members of the religious leaders and also and most likely government officials of all natures, including security agencies personnel.
“They are everywhere. And I’ve seen this even in the Niger Delta. There’s no way you would deliver a volume and lose up to 30 percent and you will continue to put those products in this line.”
He said the security agencies have been able to trace and destroy most of the illegal connections. He added that with the recent award of a security contract to Government Ekpemupolo a.k.a Tompolo a former Niger Delta agitator, there would be an improvement in terms of security.
“We need private contractors to man the right of way to these pipelines.
“So we put up a framework for contractors to come and bid and they were selected through a tender process. And we believe we made the right decision,” Kyari added