Host communities along the Eastern Gas Pipeline Network have given Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited, PINL, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, two weeks to pay three months outstanding allowances owed to surveillance contractors, guards and stakeholders securing the critical national asset.
The communities issued the ultimatum on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, during a press briefing in Port Harcourt addressed by His Royal Highness EZE Wagbara Peter (Rtd) on behalf of a cross-section of traditional rulers, community leaders, surveillance leaders, youth and women groups.
The leaders said despite the high-risk nature of the job, which requires guards to traverse swamps, creeks and isolated bush paths at night to ward off vandals and oil thieves, their allowances have not been paid for three months. Community stakeholders mobilizing local support against sabotage, they added, also face threats and hostility.
They described the situation as painful, noting that youths exposing themselves to grave danger in the interest of national energy security have been left without income to cater for their families, a development that has created anxiety and eroded trust in the community-based surveillance arrangement.
Beyond the unpaid arrears, the communities also decried what they termed double jeopardy, alleging exclusion from scholarship, youth and women empowerment and other Corporate Social Responsibility programmes being implemented by PINL in other host communities.
According to them, while they bear the physical risk of protecting the pipeline, they have not enjoyed comparable social and economic benefits.
The communities, while reaffirming their commitment to peaceful engagement and continued protection of the pipeline, demanded immediate reconciliation and settlement of the three-month backlog, resumption of regular payments, and formal inclusion of Eastern Gas Pipeline communities in relevant CSR programmes.
They also called for direct engagement with recognized traditional rulers to agree on a clear payment schedule and a sustainable dispute resolution mechanism.
“We call on the management of PINL and the leadership of NNPCL to treat this appeal with the seriousness it deserves and to act within the two-week grace period. Our patience must not be mistaken for absence of legitimate concerns,” EZE Wagbara said.
He added: “Our message is simple: honour the outstanding obligations, restore regular payments and give Eastern Gas Pipeline host communities fair access to relevant community development programmes.”
