Minister of Power, Cinedu Nebo said on Wednesday that pipeline vandals are targeting gas facilities to ensure that power generation do not exceed 4,000 mega watt.

The minister said in Abuja that government was deploying remote sensing technologies to assist security agents to curb the menace.

He, however, stressed that Government efforts would amount to nothing without the collaboration of citizens.

Nebo, therefore, called on Nigerians to join the Government in its fight against the vandals by promptly reporting incidences of vandalism in the areas.

To achieve this, Government signed a memorandum of understanding with Charlie Boy, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and other youth groups to sensitize citizens on the activities of the vandals.

Nebo disclosed that in the past six months alone, over 200 incidences of gas pipelines attacks have been recorded on the Trans-Niger crude pipelines in the east, affecting Okoloma gas supply.

He noted that a loss of 200mmcf/d is equivalent to a power reduction of the order of 700mw.

“I know whoever is doing this (vandalism) is only doing that to sabotage the effort of Government. Government wants to keep us in the regime of 4,000 plus mega watt. We now have a capacity to do 5,000mw, but these vandals will not let us go beyond that.

“Once we come up to a particular threshold of 4,500mw, they vandalise the lines to make sure that we are kept at a place where they can advertise in the newspapers that power is not improving and Government is not doing anything.

“But you can see for yourselves the effort that this Government is making to bring power to Nigerians. And yet these hoodlums or whoever they are, are trying to undermine all the effort of the Government under President Goodluck Jonathan to make sure that Nigerians have adequate power supply”.

He noted that so far, all the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) plants are now connected to gas supply facilities.

Adapted from Daily Independent

*Photo shows Power Minister, Nebo