*hail Niger Delta youths for securing oil pipelines
Northern youths, under the aegis of Arewa Youth Assembly, have called on the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari(retd.), to engage the service of competent hands to protect the Ajaokuto-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline from vandals.
This, the youths said, became imperative because, at the completion of the AKK gas pipeline project, there will be a steady and guaranteed gas supply to the region from the southern part of the country which would boost the economy.
This is just as they hailed their counterpart in the Niger Delta from refraining pipeline vandalism as was experienced in the past.
According to them, the action of the youth in protecting oil pipelines in the oil-rich region has greatly impacted the nation’s economy.
The Spokesman of the Arewa Assembly, Aliyu Sanni Mohammed, while addressing a press conference at the Arewa House, Kaduna, also commended the Federal Government in zeroing down on Ocean Marine Solutions Limited, for the protection of oil pipelines across the Niger Delta region.
“We are appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari and other stakeholders in the oil industry to engage the services of a competent surveillance company in safeguarding the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kaduna gas pipeline too,” he said
According to him, the youths are of the belief that since the organisation took over the job of pipeline surveillance and security in the Niger Delta a few years ago, there has been a remarkable shift from the old order.
“For instance, pipeline vandalism, illegal crude oil numbering and theft, insecurity and frequent host community hostilities are now becoming history in the region. We now have a more secured, environmentally friendly Niger Delta.
“No doubt too that the barrel of crude oil and gas produced per day and their attendant revenues generated for the federal government and other tiers of government has geometrically increased. This is evident in seeing states hitherto beneath the ladder of highest producer(s) of crude oil and gas due to activities of illegal oil bunkers now on the top of the ladder.
“The Arewa Youth Assembly wish to identify and are in solidarity with our brothers from the Niger Delta in the interest of nation-building.
“We call on President Muhammad Buhari and the top echelon of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to sustain the progress recorded in the oil industry by Ocean Marine Solutions Limited in pipeline security and surveillance in the Niger Delta in order not to plunge the country back into the ugly era where we have all been delivered from.”
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