SAND EXCAVATION IN AND AROUND EGBIN POWER PLANT IS ‘DISASTER IN WAITING’ – COMMANDANT EWEKA WARNS • Restates Commitment to NSCDC mandate
By: Fanayajo Ranti, The Tochlight Africa News
The Commandant of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Lagos State Command, Commandant Eweka E. Okoro made an emergency sensitization tour to Egbin, Gintin, Ikorodu today upon receiving intelligence of nefarious activities of some people who are excavating soil in and around one of Nigeria’s power generation asset, Egbin Power Plant.
The activities are so bad that some masts in the facility may fall which would lead to loss of lives and properties in the Ikorodu area, and reduce power generation capacity of the country.
Observing the impending danger of the nefarious activities, Eweka told The Tochlight Africa News, ‘I am here to do sensitization talk to our neighbors here. Most of the tippers here are busy excavating soil right beside the powerline which are very critical infrastructure to the government which is within our purview to protect. It is very difficult for government to replace these things once it is damaged. Government purse is lean but our people don’t care because of their pecuniary gain knowing full well the effects of what they are doing. We are here to tell them we won’t condone it anymore. Any truck caught here will be arrested.’
We won’t tolerate this excavation anymore. We have an MOU with the Ministry of Mines which says we are the official police for them. No man has the right to get sand here without getting their official license. This is a disaster in waiting. We don’t want these masts to collapse.’
‘We are sensitizing them if they say they don’t know. What we believe in our organization is that everything is not arrest, you sensitize, you do advocacy. That is why we are here to tell them to stop. Ignorance is not an excuse. We are giving them a stern warning, our eagle eye is watching. Anyone caught now will have himself to blame, there won’t be excuse any longer’, he told The Tochlight Africa News
On the reason for the act, Eweka noted: ‘Greed is the major cause of problem in Nigeria. For those excavating they should be able to see that this is under powerline where there is high emission. Their love of money is why they are insensitive to what is right. As for the neighbors, they feel they don’t care’, The Tochlight Africa News gathered.
On how he got the Intel about the activities, he added: ‘We have our intelligence officers in Ikorodu who discovered this act which is inimical to the State. We are in all LGs/LCDAs in Lagos. It is in the course of our monitoring that we discovered the nefarious activities.’
Speaking directly with tipper owners and drivers in the area, Commandant Eweka sternly warned ‘If this powerline falls down, it will be hard to take it back. Excavation of soil without official license is also part of our job. It’s because of a deaf man that will speak to his children. I took my time to come here to warn you. Any truck found there will be impounded and disposed’
In his response, a BOT member of Ijede Tipper venture, Akeem Oseni said: ‘We use to see them go there but because they always say they got papers and receipts, it didn’t make us know what to do. Area N Police is close to us but since they didn’t warn, we didn’t know. Now that NSCDC has warned, we will tell all of them in Ijede axis that government has come and has warned us.’
Also responding, the Chairman of the Ijede Tipper venture, Alh. Tajudeen Ilesanmi assured: ‘I will call an emergency meeting today to inform our members that the place is a no-go area. I will also pass the information to other garages within our environment.’
The NSCDC Lagos Commandant thanked Commandant-General, Dr. Ahmed Abubakar Audi for his constant reminder on the mandate. ‘my CG Audi put us on our toes when he became the 3rd substantive CG that we should justify why the government is paying us and so our core mandate should be done.’
‘I want to thank him for the opportunity given to me to serve in Lagos. I want to tell him that we will discharge our duty which is not only about oil theft, pipeline vandalism but also soil vandalism’, Eweka concluded.