Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has announced that the government has provided necessary support to the Nigerian Navy by providing six gunboats to secure the waterways in the state.
He added that anyone who sabotages the government’s effort to eliminate oil bunkering should be brought to justice.
Wike made the disclosure when participants of Naval Warfare College Course Four paid him a courtesy visit at Government House, Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt on Monday.
Wike in a statement by the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Paulinus Nsirim, said, “We are also procuring more gunboats for the Navy to fight pipeline vandalism and oil bunkering in the state.
“The issue of security should not be politicised as crime and criminality is not synonymous to a particular state.”
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Earlier, the Commandant Nigerian Naval War College, Rear Admiral Adeseye Oke Ayobanjo commended the governor for hosting the course participants.
Ayobanjo said, “The theme of the course is ‘Curbing Pipeline Vandalism towards Enhancing Socio-economic Development in Rivers State.’
“In choosing to carry out this study, we recognise that the Rivers State Government and other security agencies have been doing so much to curb the menace of pipeline vandalism.”