The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Monday in Abuja condemned the renewed attack on its facilities at Arepo in Ogun.
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that the System 2B pipeline at Arepo was again vandalised on Saturday barely a month after it was fixed.
This led to an explosion that reportedly killed a number of people.
NAN recalls that the same pipeline was vandalised in Aug. 2012, and that the NNPC had just concluded work on it when the latest attack took place.
Reacting to the incident, Ms Tumini Green, the Acting Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, described the attack as “callous’’.
“The corporation is appalled by the repeated attacks on the pipeline at the same spot in Arepo in Ogun.
“A similar attack on the pipeline in August last year and the difficulties the Corporation had in effecting repairs as a result of security issues caused a lot of hardship in product distribution.
“This was responsible for the emergence of long queues at fuel stations across the country in the last quarter of 2012,†she told NAN.
Green said the NNPC and PPMC had already mobilised their engineers to site to effect the necessary repairs after putting out the fire.
She expressed optimism that the pipeline would be repaired soon and called on Nigerians to be vigilant and report all suspicious movements around pipelines to security agencies.
Green said that the protection of pipelines should be the responsibility of every citizen, especially as “they are usually at the receiving end of the hardship caused by the activities of vandals.
She said that the NNPC would intensify its synergy with security agencies and stakeholders to forestall the menace of vandals.
Green called on the Ogun government to work with the NNPC to protect pipelines in the state and to arrest vandals, adding that Arepo was becoming notorious for vandalism of NNPC pipelines.