Professor Nebo said government is working hard to combat pipeline vandalism through digital surveillances system.
According to him, it is not as if government is helpless with the situation but that it requires huge capital investment to deploy digital technology in monitoring the gas pipelines from vandals.

He said: “The government is not helpless in combating pipeline vandalism. The problem is that we have not fully deployed digital system of surveillance. It is very expensive but you must put in a surveillance system that is 100 per cent digital.

This is so that wherever you are, if there is any slight tampering or even touching of the line, it tells you exactly where and when it is happening.

“It is not a matter of what we are doing now, when if a hole is punched in a line, we will send the whole day looking for it. But this technology costs hundreds of millions of dollars and the President has already started doing something on that to make sure we stop vandalism.”

On the estimated billing by power distribution companies, DISCOs, vis-a-vis their commercial losses, he said: “We cut back technical losses substantially. Unfortunately it is not so with commercial losses. More than 50 per cent of Nigerians are not metered.

“Some who are metered circumvent the metres and do connections that are illegal. Also, many people are not paying their energy bills. Many people are using electricity without the knowledge of the electricity companies. And that is why some of these companies reported a colossal loss of over 50 per cent, some of them even 55 per cent.

“So who pays if there is a tariff adjustment? So at the end of the day, it is those who pay that are forced to pay more. This is because it is those you see that you will get your money from.”

He however disclosed that “the companies are committed to reducing commercial losses gradually.”