Security Beefed up Around Oil Facilities
From Omon-Julius Onabi in Warri, 03.10.2009
Security has been beefed up around oil and gas facilities particularly in the Escravos waters in Delta State following reports that certain militant groups in the Niger-Delta were planning to blow up facilities in the area.
THISDAY gathered from reliable sources that attack by militants on some Chevron offshore facilities in the area was imminent, and security around Chevron and facilities belonging to other oil multi-nationals operating in the area had to be stepped up.
Confirming the report to THISDAY yesterday, spokesman of the security Joint Task Force (JTF), Col Rabe Abubakar, said the immediate deployment of more men and material to the Escravos waters followed strong intelligence report of an impending attack on Chevron facility in Abiteye.
Abubakar also said that the intelligence revealed that people involved in illegal gathering were behind the planned attack, but noted that the militants were equally responsible for most of the illegal bunkering activities in the Niger-Delta.
An attack was to be launched from Benkrukru riverside community in the state on Chevron’s Abiteye Flow Station and the pipelines blown up, the spokesman said.
He said the increased security presence was mainly pre-emptive as the militants or the criminals nursing the heinous act of economic sabotage against the nation had to be checkmated before any harm was done.
“The whole idea is aimed at preventing crime and other illegal activities in the Niger-Delta and nipping such incidents in the bud rather than wait for them to happen”, he said.
The planned attack “might not be unconnected with the recent seizure of 24 barges by the troops of the security task force in Abiteye”, which involved serious shoot-out between the JTF and militants believed to have been hired by the oil thieves.
The oil thieves were said to have blamed the seizure of the 24 barges on the co-operation given to the JTF by the American oil giant, Chevron, though the JTF denied the allegation,saying the seizure was made possible through the accurate networking and commitments of the JTF leadership.
In a related development, indigenes of Dibi staged a demonstration at the Dibi flow station, barricading the flow station and demanding that it should be shut down.
The protest was apparently sparked by the recent oil spillage around some communities in the area, including Dibi, which the people claimed had polluted their water source and generally disrupted their means of livelihood.
Confirming the report yesterday, Abubakar said the situation was resolved before it got out of control, but added that JTF personnel were however being “stationed in the area to maintain peace and provide protection to workers and oil facilities”.
