Follow Us on Google
From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Association of Tank Farm of Oil and Gas Marketers of Nigerian (ATOGMAN), has decried the activities of oil bunkers and unlatched trucks currently causing Nigeria to be losing an estimated $200 million monthly.
ATOGMAN’s Chairman, and memmber Board of Trustee, Chief Lawrence Kanu, disclosed this after the inauguration of the Exco, yesterday in Abuja.
Kanu appealed to government to institutionalise state police so that communities in which pipelines pass through would quickly reach out security personnel for help.
He added that the leadership of the country must relax refining crude oil abroad as it was contributing to the high rate of unemployment and infrastructure decay.
He further suggested that the nation’s major highways used tanker drivers be put in good shape to reduce incidence of trucks falling while ferrying petroleum products.
He said: “On the issues of how much Nigeria is losing, I want you to know that we are losing in the area of unemployment.
“We have refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri. Imagine the capacity of people who are going to be employed directly, the contractors who are going to have jobs and which would lead to more economic development of the country. So, if those refineries are working, it would help the country. If you check, you will realise that 99 per cent of petroleum consumed in the country is imported.
“If we have all the facilities and other resources why not we refine here in the country and avoid paying all these international charges accrued to importation processes into the country.
“Look at the area of securing oil pipeline, there are bad routes where pipelines are. Government should provide security in those areas as well as in communities in which pipelines pass through need to be secured by the use of their local vigilante to protect pipeline.
“The only way pipelines can have effective protection is when there is community policing. “When the community is in partnership with the government forces, it will go along way in protecting the pipelines…”
