[Comment] The Lagos pipeline disaster

from The Daily Sun

By Sun News Publishing

Last Friday, the nation was forced to relive the ugly recrudescence of petroleum pipeline disaster in Ilado, a Lagos suburb in which more than 200 people met their sudden deaths in the criminal enterprise of scooping fuel from a vandalized pipeline.

With the charred bodies of the victims interred in mass graves, the dimension of the festering criminality certainly haunts in the circumstance that past disasters have not proven to be sufficient deterrent to those engaged in the heinous trade.

The nation now has sad record in such incidents. On October 17, 1998, an incident in Jesse, Delta State claimed over 1000 lives. Two years later, in 2000, there was the Osisioma in Abia State incident in which about 100 lives were lost. On June 19, 2003, Isuikwuato community also in Abia State was the scene of another incident in which no fewer than 150 lives were lost.

In September 2004, the Atlas Cove in Lagos recorded its own leaving no fewer than 20 roasted in the ensuing fire from damaged pipelines. Apart from the valuable lives lost, the costs to the environment are certainly incalculable. The latest incident, though sad, betrays a familiar pattern- an admixture of criminality, negligence and crass indifference on the part of those charged with the business of securing the pipelines and ensuring their integrity. Added of course is the failure in the very basic sense, of the community, in which such brazen criminality is allowed to fester.

Again, the nation is back to the old argument about the underlying causes of the problem. Poverty and alienation are easily identified as major causes. So also is the failure of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) to maintain its aging pipelines as well as the failure of the security agencies to apprehend the vandals.

Certainly, it is indisputable that the vast network of pipelines, criss-crossing rural communities provide a major source of temptation for vandals and economic saboteurs; and since the adjoining communities- often poor and without basic infrastructure, do not see themselves as stakeholders in the business of securing them, they lend themselves to becoming accomplices in the nefarious trade. Even the security agencies, have been fingered in a number of incidents of vandalisation- and these coupled with the legendary incompetence of the security agencies.

As it is, the securing of our vast pipelines calls for new thinking. The PPMC and the Federal Government should urgently undertake the task of replacing old pipelines as a first step in dealing with the pipeline integrity issue. Moveover, the pipeline corridor needs to be secured if they must be policed effectively.

As we suggested in a previous editorial, it has become important that the local communities in the pipelines right-of-way be recruited to police them- that way, they will provide needed security as well as intelligence to security agencies on the activities of vandals.

Finally, the time has come for the Nigeria Police and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to jointly fashion out a comprehensive framework for dealing with the threats to the pipelines. More than anything, it is the failure of the two agencies that lies at the root of the latest unfortunate incident.