Buratai to oil companies: Take your CSR with seriousness

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, has advised oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region to take Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with all sense of seriousness, as it could avert any possible crisis between the host communities and the companies.

The Army Chief gave the advice while playing host to the Managing Director of  Upstream Companies and Country Chair of Total Nigeria Limited, Mr. Mike Sangster, in his office at the Army Headquarters Abuja.

Buratai said oil companies should always carry members of their host communities along in whatever they do in order to build trust and cooperation between them.

He commended Total Nigeria Limited for it interventions in the Army Barracks through its CSR projects, adding that such projects have gone a long way in boosting troops’ morale.  Buratai also commended the company for donating, as part of its CSR, a befitting hospital to the Nigerian Army University Biu, Borno state.

He said the Nigerian Army would continue to protect oil installations and national assets in the Niger Delta region against criminal elements.

Earlier, Sangster said the company appreciated the efforts of the Nigerian Army in combating terrorism, adding that the Army had been “instrumental to peace around operating locations especially onshore.”

“The soldiers around our locations exhibit professionalism in their conduct,” he said.

Sangster solicited for more security presence by the Army as he said that the company’s location was still not spared of general security risk like kidnapping and robberies at service stations.

“Locations have their peculiar security risks such as vandalism, asset theft, and so on… We rely on government security forces to maintain an environment conducive for operations,” he said.

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