The Commission when established would oversee pipeline management in the country and handles the aspect of vandalization of pipelines because the federal government is losing a lot of revenue as barrels of oil are been lost daily.
Uju who spoke with journalists in Abuja at the weekend said he aligned 100% with the idea of unbundling the oil and gas sector, hence the over concentration and control of the sector has led to some of the problems therein.
“As a member of the National Assembly, I am preparing a bill that will actually create a special Commission that will oversee pipeline management in the country. The Commission will talk about the aspect vandalization of pipeline in our country because the federal government is losing a lot of revenue because you see barrels been lost daily.
“On this note we should be looking at establishing Oil and Pipeline Protection Commission. It will make it mandatory for the Commission to first of all apply protective measures and oversee immediate clamp down on pipelines. The Oil and Pipeline Commission should be talking about the lifespan of the pipelines”, he stated.
Speaking on the recent oil pipeline explosion in Etekwuru community of Ohaji Egbema local government area of Imo State, Uju called on the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA ) move in and make sure that the people who have lost their means of livelihood, some of which borrow money from banks and other agencies to do their farming and help them.
According to him, “over years, we have been having issues of pipeline explosion and fire burn of human and materials resources and this has led to lost of lives and properties. I call on the oil companies that are involved and NNPC, companies like Shell, AGIP and NPDC to please save the lives of the people living along this vicinity. Move in, ascertain the level of damage and salvage the situation.
“We need to sanitize our oil sector, we need to incident issues properly in such a manner that so many people should be held responsible. Somebody supervises pipeline in NNPC, DPR and oil company”.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has called on NEMA to provide relief for the victims of the oil explosion in Etekwuru community of Ohaji Egbema local government area of Imo State.
The House also called on the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to commence the clean up of the region, and that the House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) and that on Ecological Disaster Management should ascertain the level of damage and report back to the House for further legislative action.
These decisions followed a motion moved by Kingsley Chima-Uju (AA, Imo) on the urgent need to save lives of a community in Imo state from a fire outbreak which originated from an oil pipeline explosion.
