The spokesman of the military Joint task Force (JTF), Colonel Rabe Abubakar was
quick to blame a "systems failure" as the reason for the recent fire outbreak at the
dormant Otunana flow station belonging to Chevron Nigeria Ltd.

This is an indictment of a poor safety standard of Chevron which if it were to be
the case, all its flow stations and work complexes would need a thorough safety
inspection as the company by its negligence as the JTF asserts would be putting
workers at risk.

Chevron has not yet confirmed or denied the real cause of the Otunana fire and that
should make it's workers nervous.

Corroborating the JTF version means the company is aware its facilities do not meet
the international safety standards and has done nothing about it because it is
operating from a third world country.

In the United States, an incident of such magnitude where the security personnel
confidently points at systems failure as the causative factor in a fire at such a
facility would have attracted professional investigators from the fire department to
ascertain if it was arson, sabotage or poor safety standards

MEND therefore will be justified for shutting down Chevron operations in Nigeria
until its safety standards improve.

Jomo Gbomo