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NSCDC wants arms to fight oil vandals

Adelani Adepegba, Abuja The Commandant-General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Abdulahi Muhammadu, has appealed to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to assist the corps with arms and equipment to combat pipeline vandalism in the country. The CG stated that with adequate capacity, the NSCDC could eradicate the incidence of vandalism of critical infrastructure such […]
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Adelani Adepegba, Abuja

The Commandant-General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Abdulahi Muhammadu, has appealed to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to assist the corps with arms and equipment to combat pipeline vandalism in the country.

The CG stated that with adequate capacity, the NSCDC could eradicate the incidence of vandalism of critical infrastructure such as power line, pipeline, telecom base station and other national assets.

Muhammadu said this when the Group Managing Director, NNPC,  Maikanti Baru, visited his office in Abuja on Wednesday.

The CG, stated that the corps did not want to be given money, noting that the agency lacked equipment, particularly arms, stressing that pipeline vandals operated as a syndicate adding that they were well armed.

Muhammadu explained that the corps had destroyed about 450 illegal refineries since he assumed office in July, 2015, arrested over 3,000 vandals and confiscated a lot of vehicles which were forfeited by the court and auctioned off.

The CG further said that he recently received a letter from the Ministry of Defence directing the corps to hand over all seized vehicles to the ministry.

Muhammadu said, “We have challenges, many challenges. Number one, we don’t have adequate equip+ment to fight the vandals, especially, in the area of arms. We find out that the vandals are a syndicate and they use sophisticated weapons and they would do anything to get rid of anyone that came to block their source of income.

“Thus, we have this problem of equipment and you know the budget is so tight that after going to the budget office, you make a request and so on, you end up being given a small envelope; that envelope is grossly inadequate.

“We need more vehicles. We need arms. We need tents.  We are not requesting for fund sir, we just need equipment and we are assuring you that if you give us the goods, we would deliver the devil in a very short time.”

In his response, Baru directed his director in charge of management, to engage with the corps on its request.

He lauded the NSCDC for curtailing the menace of pipeline vandalism, which he said had impacted the 2016 budget plan which was based on 2.2 million barrels per day of crude oil, adding that renewed militancy had curtailed oil production by about 700,000 bpd.

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The post NSCDC wants arms to fight oil vandals appeared first on Punch Newspapers.

Source:Punch Newspapers

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