THE Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, has appealed to the federal government to establish a law on pipeline vandalism and also recommend firing squad or life jail sentence to anyone found flouting the law.
Speaking with journalists at the fidau prayer in honour of the late IPMAN chairman, Kwara State chapter, Alhaji Jamiu Agboolade, his Ibadan counterpart, Mr. Bashorun Akanni said: “We want the National Assembly and the FG to review that law to ensure that stiffer punishment are meted out to offenders.”
Akanni who is also the IPMAN chairman, Western Depots, further stated that “We advocate capital punishment for any apprehended pipeline vandalism. We have also warned our members that anybody that aides the vandals buy buying products from them, if we catch such person, we will de-register him.
“Government is concentrating more on the distribution of petrol but much is not done in terms of the distribution of kerosene and diesel. It is more than 10 years that we loaded kerosene
and diesel in our depot. As we all know, kerosene is for the poor people, but government concentrated mainly on petrol. They are supplying only petrol instead of the three products.”
While suggesting on ways by which the dastard acts of vandalisation could be eradicated, the IPMAN boss opined that “If government want to stop vandalism, they can put a law to that effect. You know that FG, states and local government rely on money from petrol as their share from federal government, if there is a law that government will deduct from its allocation money lost to vandalism from any state or LG where such vandalism occurred, the state and LG will be more involved in the fight against vandalism and the menace will become a thing of the past.
He also described the death of Alhaji Agbolade as a colossal loss, stating that “In fact it is a shock to all IPMAN members, especially we the chairmen and the Western Zonal Council. It was a big shock to us. We miss a dear gem in our society.