Federal government threatens to use troops to halt oil vandals

The Federal government said on Monday that it was giving state governments two weeks to end arson attacks on oil pipelines in the Niger Delta, failing which it would assign the army to the task, according to news reports.

Monday’s ultimatum followed a meeting between Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, service chiefs, governors and representatives of oil-producing states, and oil sector officials, the ‘Post Express’ reported.

The decision followed persistent attacks on pipelines that cost the government some US $43 million this year, Atiku’s spokesman, Chris Mamam, told reporters in Abuja. There have been 400 pipeline leakages this year, he said, 24 of which were detected last weekend. The government’s planned crackdown, he added, was also aimed at ensuring investor confidence in the oil sector.

Militant youths throughout the Delta have taken to kidnapping oil workers and sabotaging pipelines in an effort to attract greater development of the much neglected region.

When President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered federal troops into the oil town of Odi, in Bayelsa State, in December 1999 to arrest the killers of 12 policemen; the soldiers unleashed a level of destruction that shocked the nation.