PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, to stop crude oil thefts and vandalism in the Niger/Delta region and bring all perpetrators of such crimes to justice.
The Commandant-General of the NSCDC, Dr Ahmed Audi, who disclosed this at the headquarters of the Corps in Abuja, said the country’s economic mainstay is being pillaged massively by criminal elements.
He said the President had ordered that the NSCDC should use all means possible to protect the nation’s critical assets and infrastructures, warning that any official of the corps who undermines the Presidential directive would be severely dealt with.
Dr Audi also revealed that a panel of inquiry had been established by the corps to probe alleged acts of collusion and compromise on the parts of some personnel who were found to have compromised their mandate to arrest oil thieves and vandals, asserting that those found wanting would be sanctioned accordingly.
Addressing state commandants, zonal commandants as well assistant commandant-generals, and deputy commandant generals at a strategic meeting at the headquarters of the corps in Abuja, Audi said all hands should be on the deck to stop illegal oil bunkering, vandalism and assaults on the country’s critical national assets.