ENUGU—THE Senator representing Enugu East in the National Assembly, Chief Ken Nnamani at the weekend called on the Federal Government and relevant authorities to beef up security for the nation's oil pipelines to forestall further vandalization, which he described as the height of economic sabotage and cruelty. Nnamani who spoke in Enugu after visiting the scene of the vandalized oil pipeline that claimed several lives last week at Ogbeke, Agbani, which is part of his constituency, also said that given the expertise used in drilling the valve into the pipeline, it was difficult for anybody to believe that the villagers were responsible for the act.
He said that the economic sabotage might have been perpetrated by people in the oil sector, who are bent on making money at all costs without minding the consequences of their action on the lives of the poor villagers. The Senator who also visited families of the victims and presented relief materials and money to them said: “I noticed that what happened there could not have been done by the villagers. It must have been done by experts, engineers for that matter. The site of the vandalization is very close to the road so that they can take their tankers there and siphon fuel.
“I consider it the height of economic sabotage and cruelty because the overflowing fuel there killed farm crops and rendered the river very useless beside deaths of several people caused by the vandalisation.”
Continuing he said, "the villagers had been thrown into more hardship as the Esu River, which is the major source of drinking for the people of Agbani and Akpugo had been seriously polluted by the oil spill from the vandalized pipes". “They (villagers) depend on the river called Esu. It is completely polluted and people are no longer able to fetch water in that area and it goes quite a long stretch of over five miles.”
“So, you can see that was why I moved the motion in the National Assembly to call the attention of the Federal Government to the disaster that is taking place in my constituency,” he said, expressing the hope that the government would come to the aid of the people without further delay. Nnamani, however, stressed the need for a nationwide enlightenment campaign to educate the rural dwellers on the dangers inherent in pipeline vandalisation just as he advised the people of his constituency to avoid oil pipelines that passed through their communities.
