Pipeline Vandalism: PENGASSAN Condemns Killing of 3PPMC Staff … threatens to withdraw its members

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has condemned as barbaric and unacceptable the heinous killing of three staff of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) by pipeline vandals at Arepo, Ogun State. The three workers were among those attacked by vandals while in Arepo to repair ruptured parts of the pipelines, which was damaged by vandals in August 2012 and avert the unnecessary product scarcity that could result from the damage. The union expressed its complete dissatisfaction with government’s inept attitude to the security of the personnel sent to repair the pipelines noting that the same vandals had attacked PPMC staff and journalists who had gone on an assessment visit to the site when the pipeline vandalisation was first reported. It decried a situation where people on national assignment to restore a strategic asset like petroleum pipelines were left to be murdered in cold blood by hoodlums.  PENGASSAN stated that it had directed its members not to make any further attempt to repair the pipelines until the government could guarantee their safety and security.   The union also asked the security agencies to immediately arrest the killers of the workers and charge them for murder stating that it would not hesitate to order a “Stop Work for Safety” on its members in PPMC if the perpetrators of the heinous crime were not apprehended within the next one month. Reacting to the killing of the PPMC staff, PENGASSAN President, Comrade Babatunde Ogun, said that the incident was sad, as the workers were going about their normal duties before they meant their untimely death in the hands of the economic saboteurs. He blamed the government and PPMC management that sent out the people without providing enough protection and security for them. “The government should have known that the pipeline was damaged by criminals, who daringly vandalise national infrastructures and would go to any length to protect their illicit activity.  The government should have provided adequate security for the people sent to that area. The management of the company should not have sent the workers to that point without adequate security backing,” he said. Ogun said that it was saddening from the report received that the Police were not even aware that the workers were killed as at Sunday evening, adding that this cast aspersion on the management of the PPMC and the security agencies. The PENGASSAN President also called on President Goodluck Jonathan to do something serious on both human and infrastructural security situation in the country. “We have repeatedly challenged government on the need to justify their security votes by providing security of lives and property of all Nigerians. A situation where government seems to have yielded space to all forms of criminals and terrorist to abridge the right to life of Nigerians is simply and totally unacceptable.”