Residents
of Abaji, a community located about two hours’ drive from Abuja were
surprised on Friday when some officials of the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation led by a youth corps member, Esther Mgbemeje,
showed up at their door-steps.
Their mission: to enlighten the people
on the dangers of petroleum pipeline vandalism and its adverse effects
on national economy, the environment and on human health.
Abaji hosts a number of petroleum
pipelines and Mgbemeje, a serving corps member with the NNPC, decided to
launch her campaign against vandalism at the sleepy community.
On getting there, she visited the
traditional ruler and then moved to the venue of the programme where a
number of residents were waiting.
Speaking through an interpreter, the
corps member told her audience that pipeline vandalism is an economic
sabotage which bleeds the nation’s finances, causes death, environmental
damage and compounds poverty in the community.
According to her, siphoning petroleum
products through broken pipelines have destroyed many farmlands and
crops leading to huge loss of revenue to farmers and the community,
apart from the huge amount it costs to repair the pipelines.
Mgbemeje said, “When you look at the
money spent in maintaining vandalised pipelines, it’s so huge and this
money could have been used to provide amenities that can make life easy
for the people. For example, at Kweita, km 77 has been vandalised at
three points, km 72-8 have been vandalised at nine points and in Piri,
km 82 was vandalized at 11 points.
“At Owei, km 18 was broken at nine points and all these vandalised points cost a huge amount to repair.”
The corps member tasked the people to
treat the petroleum pipelines as their property by keeping watch over it
and to inform security agencies if they noticed unscrupulous elements
around the facility.
She told PUNCH Metro that she
was concerned about the negative impact of vandalism on the people and
the environment, hence she decided to partner with the Pipeline and
Petroleum Marketing Company to carry out the enlightenment programme.
Mgbemeje thanked the PPMC for providing
the banner and other materials used during the campaign and expressed
gratitude to NNPC officials and her colleagues for their support.
On the choice of Abaji for the
programme, Mgbemeje, who studied Micro-biology at the University of
Benin, said she felt “a bonding” for the community, adding that she
was happy that the people received her and accepted to be educated.
She said, “the experience was wonderful
because the people were willing to learn. When I lost my voice while
talking to them, some of them took over and ensured the success of the
programme. I plan to step up the campaign through seminars, and on the
Internet.”
