Community leaders of oil pipelines on the Eastern Corridor of the Trans Niger Pipelines (TNL) have called on Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (PINL) to organize more stakeholders meetings and to be more innovative to consolidate on the safety of the pipelines.
The community leaders under the umbrella of Pipeline Host Ethnic Nationality Leaders of the Eastern Corridor, at a press conference in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, urged PINL to continue to partner with them as critical stakeholders in the safety of the pipelines.
The community leaders, mainly monarchs who represent stakeholders from Abia, Bayelsa, Imo, and Rivers States, also stressed the need for PINL to consolidate on its gains in securing the pipelines in the Eastern Corridor.
“…PINL monthly stkeholders engagement with all community stakeholders is unprecedented in the oil and gas sector and has fostered transparency, trust, and community participation.
“We, the Pipeline Host Ethnic Nationality Leaders of the Eastern Corridor, strongly commend this initiative and encourage its continuity. Our call We urge PINL to sustain and even expand on its innovations, particularly their monthly stakeholder engagements and its inclusive community development policies.
They noted through their spokesperson, Famous Danuwa, that the efforts of PINL in collaboration with the host communities “has significantly reduced youth unemployment and enhanced peace and stability at the grassroots level.
“Through its inclusive and proactive approach, PINL has played a major role in resolving long-standing leadership and communal conflicts, allowing previously excluded communities to become integrated into its operational framework.”
The community leaders said: “We, the Pipeline Host Ethnic Nationality Leaders of the Eastern Corridor, strongly commend this initiative and encourage its continuity. We urge PINL to sustain and even expand on its innovations, particularly the monthly stakeholder engagements and its inclusive community development policies.
“We are pleased to declare, as many others have, that we are highly satisfied with the manner in which PINL is conducting its operations across our various communities.
“From the onset of their operations as surveillance contractors in 2022, PINL’s presence and impact have been strongly felt in our communities. Beyond direct engagement with community leadership, numerous unemployed youths were provided with jobs in pipeline surveillance roles.
“Consultation with Community LeadershipPINL has maintained close consultations with community leadership, includingparamount rulers, chiefs, Community Development Committee (CDC) chairmen, youth, and women leaders.
They called on the Presidency and all relevant federal agencies to renew PINL’s contract and expand its scope of operations having “proven itself as a key partner in the actualization of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, especially in the host communities of the Eastern Corridor and the wider Niger Delta region.”
Meanwhile, PINL has issued scholarship form to be filled by three candidates for consideration from its host communities. The forms were made available to the community leaders, who expressed happiness that the company has fulfilled his promise to use education to lift their communities.
