Bayelsa State governor, Senator Douye Diri, has called for the involvement of Niger Delta state governments in the pipeline surveillance projects.
The governor said the inclusion of the states would prevent non-state actors engaged in pipeline surveillance from taking laws into their hands, thereby creating more security challenges for the region.
Speaking while receiving the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, at the Government House in Yenagoa, yesterday, Diri said the state government’s call for a review of the current pipeline surveillance arrangement is for the Niger Delta states to be involved in order to create room for inconclusiveness.
Represented by his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, Diri noted that the current arrangement in the surveillance contracts across the region could pose serious security challenges if not properly regulated.
In the same vein, Diri’s spokesman, Mr Daniel Alabrah, in a statement, said the state government also faulted some media reports that it called for the cancellation of oil pipeline surveillance contracts awarded by the federal government to some private security firms in the country.
He said the position of the state government, as stated by the deputy governor during the visit of the Chief of Naval Staff to Government House remains that the Nigerian Navy should be strengthened to perform its constitutional role of tackling the country’s security challenges and protection of its maritime assets.
He quoted Governor Diri as saying the state government had never been against engaging non-state actors in oil pipeline surveillance but that they ought to be supervised by the country’s conventional security organs.
He commended the security commanders and the men serving in the state for their commitment in the discharge of their duties, which has ensured Bayelsa remains one of the most peaceful states in the country.
