Oil Wells:Lagos faults arrest of residence

The Lagos State Government says it is not
comfortable with the indiscriminate arrests
of some state residents around Idimu/
Ejigbo areas over the discovery of some
wells containing fuel instead of water.

The government said it was concerned
because the law enforcement agencies did
not conduct a proper investigation to
establish whether the people arrested were
actually
responsible for the action or
whether it was a mere incident.

The Commissioner for the Environment, Mr.
Tunji Bello, said this in a statement on
Sunday.

He said any arrest without a thorough
investigation to ascertain the degree of
neglect by relevant government agencies
would be wrong. He added that such action
was
like punishing the people for an
offence that they were not responsible for.

He said, "While the state government
supports every action of the Federal
Government to curb stealing of petroleum
products and pipeline vandalisation, it
frowns at any act that could constitute an
infraction on the rights of residents
through wantonly unjust arrests by
officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil
Defence Corps."

Bello said past and present administrations
in the state had drawn the attention of the
Federal Government to hazards being
experienced by residents of Baruwa- Ipaja,
Ilado, Amuwo-Odofin and Ejigbo through
polluted boreholes, contamination of
underground water, ruptured pipelines
and seepage of pipelines, without any
response.
The commissioner said, "The state
government has records showing that
official letters were written by the
immediate past Governor of Lagos State,
Bola Tinubu, to former President Olusegun
Obasanjo in 2000.
"More importantly, the present
administration of Mr. Babatunde Fashola
equally wrote a letter to President Goodluck
Jonathan
and Minister of Petroleum
Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke,
respectively, complaining about the serious
oil
pollution and high level of degradation
that residents of these areas are daily
exposed to without any meaningful
response."
Bello insisted that NNPC must conduct an
integrity test on its pipelines in the state, as
well as provide the state government with
information to prevent future recurrence.

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