Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday presided over some meetings as part of efforts aimed at tackling the menace of militants who have been vandalising oil and gas pipelines in the Niger Delta.
Osinbajo first met behind closed doors with some top security chiefs and government officials over the matter.
Chevron’s Okan offshore production platform around Escravos in Warri, Delta State was last week blown up, a development that led to the shutdown of the facility by the oil major.
On Thursday night, a pipeline transporting crude oil to the Warri and Kaduna and a 16-inch gas line owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation were also blown up.
A group known as Niger Delta Avengers has claimed responsibility for the explosions.
Monday’s meetings presided over by Osinbajo were held in the conference room of his office inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The first of the meetings was also attended by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, as well as the Navy and Army chiefs.
Osinbajo also had a separate meeting with the Bayelsa State Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson; and the Amayanabo of Toun Brass, Bayelsa State, King Alfred Diete-Spiff, on the same matter.
Dickson and Diete-Spiff arrived the vice president’s office at about 6pm while the first meeting was still ongoing and waited to meet with Osinbajo.
The vice president again returned to the conference room for another round of meeting with representatives of major oil companies in the country.
Those who attended included the representatives of Shell, Agip, Total, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas and Chevron, among others. Dickson and Diete-Spiff also joined the meeting.
The last meeting, which started at about 7:45pm, was still ongoing as of the time of filing this report at 8pm.
Following the spate of attacks on oil and gas assets, Nigeria’s output of crude oil has declined and is now close to a 22-year low, Reuters data shows, putting intense pressure on the country’s finances.