LASG warns against encroaching on pipeline routes

Lagos State government has warned residents in the state to desist from erecting structures and encroaching on the rights of way of oil pipelines belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Giving the warning during a stakeholders’ meeting on ‘petroleum products pipelines’ rights of way protection and vandalism’ held at the weekend at the state’s secretariat, Alausa, the permanent secretary in the ministry of energy and mineral resources, Mrs. Regina Obasa said the caution became necessary to avert disasters associated with such practice.

Obasa, who lamented increased level of encroachment, also urged the federal government to seek creative ways of solving the issue of pipeline vandalism in the country.

She said the time had come to evolve modern methods of protecting the pipelines because many of the areas that were rural communities decades ago when the pipes were laid were increasingly becoming urban centers thereby exposing the pipelines to the attendant dangers.
The permanent secretary also urged the federal government and its relevant agencies to come up with the gazette acquiring the rights of way as well as detail maps showing pipeline coverage and routes across the state.