Traditional rulers suspected in some oil spillages

Traditional rulers in southeastern Nigeria are suspected of being among the people sabotaging oil pipelines in Bayelsa State, Navy Commodore Ahmed Alabi said on Monday in the coastal city of Port Harcourt, ‘The Guardian’ newspaper reported.

He said five Ijaw youths arrested while trying to blow up a pipeline in the state had said that their action was aimed at enabling the sole contractor responsible for repairing vandalised pipelines, their chief, to win the repair contract from which the youths were to be paid.

Alabi said the youths were also motivated to carry out their act by the failure of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company to pay compensation over the alleged death of two of their comrades.

Alabi said that on 26 July, naval troops patrolling the Tokugbene community in Bayelsa arrested two youths trying to vandalise pipelines belonging to the company. During questioning, they confessed to having been enlisted by their traditional ruler to blow up pipelines with dynamite.

Ten days earlier at Elelenwo Creek, Alabi said, the navy impounded two barges containing 1,650 mt of crude oil. One of the barges was set ablaze before it could be towed away.