Bayelsa monarchs urge pipeline surveillance firms to emulate PINL

Traditional rulers in Bayelsa State have lauded a pipeline surveillance company, Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (PINL), for its various initiatives aimed at improving the well-being of its host communities.

Bubaraye Dakolo, chairman of Bayelsa State Council of Traditional Rulers, made the call while giving a goodwill message at PINL’s stakeholders engagement on Thursday in Yenagoa.

Dakolo, who is also the Ibenanaowei of Ekpetiama Kingdom, commended the company for its relentless efforts at ensuring that oil and gas communities are carried along in its operations.

Also speaking, David West, chairman of Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) in the state, said PINL has understood the yearnings and aspirations of the host communities and working to assuage their challenges.

Azibator Efere, secretary of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Central Zone, urged PINL not to relent in its efforts to pay all outstanding stipends and renumeration owed benefitting stakeholders.

Efere urged the host communities to also reciprocate the good gesture of the surveillance firm by ensuring that peace and tranquility prevail in their domain.

Akpos Mezeh, PINL general manager, Community and Stakeholders Relations, in his welcome address, said the attendance of stakeholders reflected the shared dedication to strengthening cooperation, sustaining peace, and advancing development across the host communities within their operational corridors.

Mezeh explained that PINL skipped the February meeting to consolidate on some important aspects of community empowerment programmes, including the disbursement of scholarship grants to beneficiaries from the host communities.

He advised beneficiaries who were yet to receive their scholarship grants to visit the help desk to address such concerns and ensure that no beneficiary was left behind.

“At PINL, we hold firmly to one guiding principle, community partnership is national security. When communities protect infrastructure, they protect livelihoods, national revenue, and the future of our country”, he said.

On Nigeria’s energy outlook, he said the oil and gas sector remained central to national development and economic stability, citing recent developments which he said reflected renewed progress and growing opportunities.

Mezeh assured PINL would sustain its advocacy for oil and gas riverine communities to also enjoy uninterrupted supply of petroleum products through the provision of functional floating petrol and gas stations.

He said the Federal Government was aware of the challenges confronting the people who continue to buy petroleum products above prevailing market prices.

Mezeh disclosed recent cases of crude theft in Rivers and Bayelsa states saying,
“Preliminary findings point to a possible coordinated conspiracy. Let me be clear, once investigations are concluded, everyone found culpable will be brought to justice, and no one will be spared.”

He therefore, called for a stronger collaboration with stakeholders including its host communities to secure oil and gas infrastructure along the eastern corridor of the Trans Niger Pipeline.