658 suspects were arrested for alleged involvement in the operation of illegal refineries, oil theft and other criminal activities in the out gone year by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
Commandant of the corps in charge of the Rivers State Command, Mrs. Hellen Amakiri, disclosed this while parading the suspects at the command’s headquarters in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
She said out of the 658 suspects, 229 of them have been charged to court, adding that the arrests were made possible because of her command’s massive onslaught against acts aimed at sabotaging the nation’s economy.
She said out of the criminal cases charged to court between January and December 2015, the corps secured 22 convictions, while 207 cases are pending for trial.
She noted that her command has declared a zero tolerance on sabotage, adding that based on the available evidence against the accused persons, the remaining suspects would be convicted by the court.
She said: “Most of these suspects were involved in illegal dealings in petroleum products and floating of illegal refineries. With our efforts, vandals’ illegal activities along the pipelines have drastically reduced. We have been able to destroy thousands of drums containing adulterated or illegally refined products, and so many illegal refineries have been dumped in the creeks. And we are not relenting in our surveillance on these illegal sites.”
For stealing 3,423.097 metric tonnes of crude oil from Nigeria, the Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday sentenced nine foreigners to five years imprisonment each.
Justice Ibrahim Buba, however, gave each of them – five Filipinos and four Bangladeshi – an option of N20million fine.
He said it was the likes of the convicts, who were arrested by the Navy on March 27, that give Nigeria a bad name.
They are Axel Jabone, Zahirul Islam, Juanito Infantado, Suarin Alave, Gatila Gadayan, Islam Shahinul, Islam Rafiqul, Shaikh Nomany and Rolando Comendador.
They were tried by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on four counts of illegal dealing in petroleum products.
EFCC’a lawyer Rotimi Oyedepo said the foreigners violated Section 1(19) (6) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act, Cap M17, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, an offence punishable under Section 17 of the same Act.
The prosecution said the convicts, caught while trying to export the stolen product on a vessel, MT Asteris, also flouted Section 4 of the Petroleum Act, Cap P10, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.
Justice Buba found them guilty on all the counts. He sentenced them to five years imprisonment. According to the judge, the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
“The case of the prosecution is as clear as the daylight,” the judge held, adding that EFCC’s case was not controverted.
Justice Buba said the convicts’ inability to prove that they had lawful permit to deal in crude oil further strengthened the prosecution’s case.
He agreed with a prosecution witness who testified that the stolen product was illegally sourced in Nigeria as “the Department of Petroleum Resources confirmed to the EFCC that MT Asteris was not lincensed to deal with crude oil in Nigeria.”
Justice Buba said: “It is the people like the convicts that have made Nigeria a laughing stock in the eyes of the world. The court must send a strong signal that Nigeria is a nation; not a nation of booty.
“It is not right for either Nigerians or foreign nationals to deny this country its God-given natural resources through illegal use. According this court hereby sentence each convict to five years term of imprisonment on count one with effect from March 27, 2015 with an option of N5m fine.”
The judge sentenced them to five years each on counts two, three and four or a fine of N5million for each count.
“All the sentences are to run concurrently but not the option of fine. In addition, the vessel, MT Asteris, and the cargo on board are forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“For purposes of clarity, each convict is to serve five years term of imprisonment with effect from 27 of March, 2015 or in a fine of N20million for all the four counts,” Justice Buba added.
The fight against oil theft and operation of illegal refineries remain a mirage because of slow judicial process, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC) has declared.
Its Head, Assets Forfeiture Unit, Hameed Bawa, stated this at the base of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Delta in Warri where the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) of the Central Naval Command, Rear Admiral Apochi Suleiman, handed nine suspected oil thieves and a vessel over to the anti-corruption body.
Bawa said the prosecution of suspected oil criminals by security agencies has been stunted by slow judicial process.
According to him: “The challenge everybody knows we have is the judiciary. Once we receive suspects and assets used for oil thieves as we have done today, we do further investigations and start prosecution immediately but it takes so long for a case to be concluded.”
Suleiman, who explained the circumstances that led to the arrest of the suspects, said although they had naval clearance to lift a certain amount of refined products, the vessel and its crew was nabbed for violating the clearance.
He explained: “The ship got a valid clearance by navy to lift 10,000 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) from Matrix, a private tank farm near NPA Warri, but a naval patrol team allegedly caught the same ship and nine-man crew using the permit to lift diesel from a far off illegal refinery in Kantu, Warri South West local government area, Delta State.”
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has called for a stakeholders summit comprising ship owners, DAPPMAN, Police, Army, Navy, NNPC, DSS, DPR, Civil Defence Corps, NUPENG and PENGASSAN to fashion out a new strategy to end oil theft and pipelines vandalism.
The President of NUPENG, Comrade Igwe Achese made this statement during a courtesy call on the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen Tukur Buratai, in Abuja. Comrade Achese said NUPENG as a major stakeholder was worried about the incessant vandalisation and oil theft which has led to huge loses to the nation’s economy. He promised to collaborate with the army to end the scourge.
Comrade Achese also drew the attention of the Chief of Army Staff to the attitude of some soldiers who harass and disturb tanker drivers performing their Lawful duties in the haulage of petroleum products to various parts of the country.
Lt.-Gen Buratai said the army was on top of Boko Haram situation. He added that he ordered the commander of the Military Police to check the harassment of tanker drivers and he was also going to meet with NIMASA on ways to check oil theft.
The Chief of Army Staff advised NUPENG to always explore the use of dialogue instead of shutting down the nation whenever they had any grievances.
The criminal activities of the oil thieves and illegal refiners and bunkerers made the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, to visit the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Pathfinder, Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt, Rivers State shortly after he took over.
•Destruction of stolen crude oil by personnel of NNS, Pathfinder, Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt, Rivers State,
While at the NNS Pathfinder, which has as Commander, Commodore Shuwa Abdulrahim Mohammed, who assumed office on May 15 this year, Ibas warned the naval personnel against aiding and abetting crude oil theft and illegal refining of petroleum products, declaring that anybody caught would be sanctioned appropriately.
The CNS, while addressing naval officers and men, stated that the navy had declared total war against crude oil theft, illegal bunkering and refining, as well as other criminal activities in the creeks and waterways, noting that the government and the Nigerian navy had done a lot, to ensure better performance.
The crude oil theft is becoming worse, with a whole community/village now getting involved in artisanal/illegal refining of crude oil, especially into diesel, which is sold for local consumption, while the criminals are now role models in most of the communities, without the elders and monarchs being able to call them to order, as some of them aid them for pecuniary benefits.
Nigeria loses more crude oil than any other country in the world – more than seven per cent of daily production. The Federal Government of Nigeria and the oil companies suffer huge financial losses, an estimated $6 billion per annum.
An artisanal refining unit is a simplified petroleum distillation unit, which is conceptualised like a crude school science project. It can also be likened to the production of the local dry gin, commonly called “Ogogoro/kaikai.”
The aim of artisanal refining is to boil barrels of stolen crude oil with naked fire in a metal constructed sealed tank. The crude evaporates and passes through two parallel pipes, connected to the tank through a wooden constructed cooling water bath. The refined product then drips out slowly into a container at the other end, with different products emerging at different intervals.
Artisanal refining sites can be easily seen in creeks, forests and villages of the Niger Delta and it takes about three days to get up to five drums of refined petroleum products. After the refining processes, the products are filled into rubber and metal drums for transloading and storage, from where they are transported to their final destinations.
Since most of the artisanal refining sites are located near the creeks, the refined products are usually transported through the waterways to the neighbouring towns and villages, while transportation of large volume of crude oil to mother ships offshore is done by the use of barges.
The barges and Cotonou boats are usually anchored within the creeks, where they are filled with the required volume of crude oil, before they are transported and transferred into the mother ship, which can be in the coastal waters of Ghana or Benin Republic.
It is unlikely to visit jetties within any of the communities involved in illegal bunkering, without seeing piles of drums and rubber containers used for transporting the petroleum products.
Most of the locally-produced petroleum products (through artisanal refining) are transported to the cities, where they are probably mixed with the regular products and sold in conventional filling stations. The dominant product is diesel.
Since the tolerance of diesel engines is high, it is usually not easy to detect locally-refined diesel from the regular product.
A major driving force of the thriving illegal bunkering business in Nigeria is market demand. There is a huge local and international market for the crude oil stolen from Nigeria.
While the stolen crude oil is sold in countries within the West African sub-region and Europe, the locally-refined petroleum products are mostly sold in the local villages and towns, but now getting to Onitsha in Anambra State and Lagos.
A drum of locally-refined diesel goes for N7,000 in the creeks and as much as N12,000 to N15,000 in the cities.
The involvement of women in the whole process of illegal bunkering and artisanal refining is more or less secondary, because they are generally not involved in obtaining crude oil or in the refining process.
Women, however, play pivotal roles in the transportation and marketing of the refined products, as well as cooking and provision of sexual services for the predominantly male operators.
Children, mostly orphans and aged between 10 and 13, also work in the illegal bunkering sites and run errands at the camps, while absentee owners of illegal refining sites always appoint managers to run the operations.
In 2010, there were 1,500 illegal refining operations in the region, with Bodo Creeks in Gokana LGA of Rivers state harbouring over 1,000 youths, who were directly involved in illegal refining, which might have been higher now.
There are three main sets of actors involved in illegal bunkering: those who compromise the pipelines by breaking and installing taps on them to procure crude oil for sale; those who buy the crude oil for export and the local operators who process stolen crude oil into low quality fuels for the domestic market, with the three sets of actors referred to as oil thieves or illegal bunkerers.
Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta States account for 80 per cent of Nigeria’s onshore oil production and a predominant proportion of crude oil theft.
Illegal bunkering and artisanal refining are rooted in the grim economic and social circumstances of the Niger Delta. Poverty is endemic and unemployment is high. Nigeria loses $6 billion to oil theft annually. 28,000 people receive incomes directly or directly from illegal bunkering.
The illegal bunkering economy has an annual value of $9 billion. Those who export 80 per cent of the stolen crude oil are not poor people. They are connected to the political and military establishments, as well as the oil bureaucracy.
Concerted international action to check the Nigerian crude oil theft is not feasible, because the stolen crude oil represents a minor fraction of international crude oil traffic and does not present any credible threat to the world’s economy and international security.
Some Niger Delta youths are angry and have developed a deep sense of alienation. Their resort to illegal bunkering is an effort to earn a living and live their dreams, as well as being their expression of rebellion against the Federal Government.
Cult and militant groups also take part in illegal bunkering and artisanal refining processes in the Niger Delta.
Another important group that is involved in the illegal oil refining business is made up of individuals, who are not involved in any cult group, but are simply unemployed youths, with their ages ranging from 18 to 30.
The wages of the unemployed youths are usually calculated on a daily basis, but they normally get paid at the end of the week, when the products must have been evacuated and sold, while their wages vary according to the bunkering area. Some are paid N1,500 or N2,000 per day.
Marketers of the locally-refined products evacuate them from the producers and market them in bulk quantities. Then the women and children take over and sell to the members of the public in small retail units.
In some cases, stolen crude oil from pipelines are loaded in small barges and taken straight into the sea, where it is transhipped into larger barges (mother ships) in return for money and weapons. The practice has in recent years fuelled the violent communal clashes within the Niger Delta communities.
Artisanal refining is now undergoing structural changes, featuring concentration and centralisation, making possible oil theft on an industrial scale. The huge storage steel tanks being constructed and other requirements, including insurance in case of arrest, require considerable starter capital of about N1 million.
A major implication of this change is that many of the small operators of the past now work for the powerful “big boys” and financiers, who can muster the capital requirement and necessary law enforcement contacts for the protection of the business.
Workers and other people with legitimate livelihoods are investing in the illegal businesses of artisanal refining and bunkering, in order to provide for themselves an additional and more rewarding income stream.
The industry is also undergoing technical innovations, while expanding its commodity chain. Well paid specialists now drill the holes and install valves on them for siphoning crude oil from pipelines.
The fee for drilling a tapping point in some Niger Delta creeks is now between N250,000 and N300,000, with the changes giving the illegal bunkering and refining business the grounding for sustainability.
It was also confirmed that the nationals who are mostly involved in moving stolen crude oil are mainly non-English speaking, while it is common to sight Lebanese, Cameroonians, Pilipino, Romanians, Thais and Ghanaians, with the recipient refineries of crude oil stolen from Nigeria being in the United States of America, Brazil and the Gulf of Guinea.
Some naval officers are also believed to be willing tools.
Ibas said: “The navy has never tolerated its personnel conniving to wreck the nation. Any naval personnel that is involved in criminal activities will be sanctioned appropriately.
“Nigeria deserves a navy we all should be proud of. A navy that finds itself at sea, doing what other navies of the world do and not the navy that finds itself at shore, engaging in things that are strange to most navies. We are all aware that our nation depends majorly on the maritime environment for its survival and we are constitutionally mandated to ensure that the maritime domain is safe and secure, to enable us to reap from the resources therein, for the prosperity of our nation.
“In recent times, the insecurity in the nation’s maritime environments has denied our nation of the needed revenue for developments. If we continue on that line, even the navy, as an institution, will find it difficult to survive.”
The Commander of NNS Pathfinder (Commodore Shuwa Abdulrahim Mohammed), while briefing reporters, after destroying 78 illegal refineries and setting ablaze 1.9 million litres of stolen crude oil in the creeks of Rivers state, stated that the operations were part of navy’s efforts to put an end to crude oil theft and other maritime crimes in the nation’s waterways.
The commander of NNS Pathfinder, who was receiving the CNS, at the same time the illegal refineries were being destroyed, was represented by the Base Operations Officer, Commander Chidi Ejiofor, and noted that the naval personnel had carried out many operations, aimed at eradicating crude oil theft, illegal bunkering and operations of illegal refineries in the area.
Since the assumption of duty of Mohammed on May 15 this year, it was disclosed that the NNS Pathfinder had regularly been deploying gunboats for daily patrols and show of force along Port Harcourt and Bonny channels, as well as within the creeks in its areas of operations.
The commander of NNS Pathfinder said: “In all, from June 15, 2015 till date, the NNS Pathfinder has destroyed 78 illegal crude oil refineries and set ablaze 1.9 million litres of stolen crude oil in 65 days. Boats and many other items being used by the oil thieves were also destroyed.
“Our gunboats are deployed for patrols across various areas, including Onne, Bolo, Alakiri, Bile and Ke areas, Port Harcourt channels and Bonny areas.
“These deployments are in response to the Nigerian Navy’s renewed commitment and the Chief of the Naval
Commodore Aliyu Sule, Commander, Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Delta, has identified impunity and slow pace of adjudication as factors responsible for the persistence of illegal bunkering in the Niger Delta region.
Sule stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Warri.
He said the process of trial of arrested suspects for oil theft was slow which encouraged the perpetrators to easily go back into the illicit act.
According to him, the cases of more than five ships apprehended by his command over stolen oil since 2005 were yet to be resolved in the courts.
“It takes a longer time for justice to be done in matters of oil theft that is why the illicit business persists.
“So suspects should be tried almost immediately and jailed,’’ he said.
Sule stressed the need for effective surveillance and speedy trial of oil thieves, saying these were germane in eradicating illegal bunkering in the region.
He disclosed that his command had adopted a constant and effective surveillance of the hinterland from both land and air with a view to adequately comb the terrains.
He noted that the approach was yielding positive result.
“We will continue to go after them until they desist from it,’’ he said.
NAN recalls that Sule, who assumed leadership of the NNS Delta in April, had destroyed 28 illegal refineries and over 2,700 metric tons of crude oil in less than three months.
The exercise was carried out in three separate operations between June and August in Warri South and Warri South-West Local Government Areas of Delta.
Sule said that in the recent operation in Kantu forest on Aug. 13 in Warri South-West, nine illegal refineries and over 700 metric tons of crude oil were destroyed.
He said that three generating sets and five portable pumping machines were recovered in the raid.
NAN reports that it was the second time Kantu forest would be invaded by the naval personnel to destroyed illegal refineries in three weeks.
“Again, my men raided Kantu forest and destroyed nine illegal refineries and about 700 metric tons of crude oil over a large expanse of land,’’ he said.
The Commander said that the determination of the navy to combat illegal oil deal was in line with the Chief of Naval Staff’s zero tolerance on crude oil theft and other illegalities in the waterways.
The commander also warned the perpetrators against the consequences of their action warning that whoever is caught would face the full weight of the law.
To boost the Federal Government’s efforts of curbing oil theft and illegal oil bunkering, the Joint Task Force(JTF) has said it would not hesitate to destroy vessels used for oil related crimes.
To this end, JTF has warned vessel and barge owners against allowing people to use their vessels for nefarious activities in the Niger Delta region.
The outgoing Commander JTF, Major General Emmanuel Atewe, in a statement, said failure of vessel owners to ascertain the purpose for which people are borrowing their barges could land them into trouble.
He said the development became necessary in order to curb oil theft, which has resulted in the loss of an estimated $10billon in Nigeria. He said: “In line with zero tolerance campaign against oil theft declared by JTF and the decision of the Federal Government to curb the crime and save the country a lot of money, we are warning vessel owners against lending out their barges to people they could not vouch for their honesty. The punishment for them is in stages. We will destroy their vessels and also ensure that they are prosecuted in a law court to serve as deterrent to others.”
He said oil related criminalities in the region and the country in particular must be eradicated to save Nigeria from losing more money. According to him, criminals have caused untold damage to the nation’s economy considering the numerous vandalised pipes, which has resulted in refineries’ poor output, and billions of naira spent on importation of petroleum products by marketers, and others.
“That is why Nigeria needs modular refineries to compliment the four major refineries in the country.
BOLAJI OGUNDELE writes about Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Delta’s efforts at fighting oil theft and illegal refineries, highlighting the dangers faced by personnel to bring about the success so far recorded
The creeks, the deep recesses of the Niger Delta region of the nation are a nest of sort; it gives convenience and shield to a lot of things. The Nigerian black gold, the crude oil, is nestled in the deep creeks. It was same creeks that gave cover to youths of the oil-rich region when they were fed up enough to pick up arms against the nation while demanding for a share of the proceeds from the black gold.
The same creeks have become the shield constantly exploited by yet another breed of Niger Deltans, whose interest has fallen on making brisk business from illegally acquired crude oil, which has come to be known as bunkering. In recent times, fighting this menace of oil theft has constituted a major preoccupation for security forces, especially the Nigerian Navy and the Civil Defense Corps. Hundreds of suspects have over time been taken into custody, equipment worth several millions of dollars either confiscated or destroyed and millions of metric tons of stolen crude and illegally refined products also destroyed.
The Nigerian government has in the last few years, since the menace became a reality, not spared resources in combatting it. A particular government effort, which has constantly received negative criticism was the choice of the Goodluck Jonathan administration to vote billions of dollars to pipelines surveillance contracts, awarded to ex-militant leaders in the Niger Delta to protect strategic pipelines. It should be noted that despite the huge financial commitment to the pipelines protection course, the nation’s crude oil output continued to deplete as a result of unabated oil theft, gradually crippling the economy.
In this fight to protect the nation’s economy against oil thieves and to finally stamp out the ‘scourge’ of illegal oil refineries, officers and men of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Delta, have shown much courage and commitment, with several operations reported and documented to the credit of the naval high command. The media is also partner in the fight and in most cases was present on the battle front. At the end of the day, it is always left to the media to convey to the world how much progress has been made in the efforts, relying on what it must have witnessed in the operations. Figures and facts about places touched, items affected and in rare cases, arrests made. However, there have been other unreported events that most times accompany the operations.
These unreported events are the personal experiences of those who take part in the several ‘expeditions’ into the deep creeks to rid the hidden places of enclaves of oil thieves and their illegal refineries. The events, in concise description, are mostly fearsome and dangerous. According to one of the journalists who have taken part in several anti-oil theft operations with the NNS Delta over many years, but who does not want his name mentioned, for safety reasons, “just the thought of the fact that the locations set for the activities are secluded, not easily accessible and definitely not one you can easily escape from, in a case of threat to life, scares me. For instance, if perchance those hoodlums decide to be daring and mete hostility back to security agents, I fear what might happen to some of us who are always unarmed and untrained in the arts surviving in such terrains as the activities take place. Thank God though, He has always protected us from dangers all along”.
Besides the dangers imagined by the journalists, other physical arms have continued, from time to time, to lay in the way of the gallant men and officers of the naval command, as well as their media companies into the dark, deep recesses of the creeks. Lieutenant Bright Eniye (not his real name) is one of the officers involved in most of the recent operations carried out by the Warri naval base in the fight against oil theft. He described details of some recent incidents, which nearly claimed lives. According to him, their mandate on the operations include to search out, locate and destroy illegal oil bunkring and illegal oil refining sites in their area of responsibility. They are to also arrest those found to be around such sites or those alleged or suspected to be perpetrators of the illegal endeavours. However, in the line of fulfilling the mandate, many of the times, the procedures had almost boomeranged as life-threatening occurrences had sadly been experienced.
“For instance, sometime in 2014, I think about July or August, we almost lost an officer; the then B.O.O (Base Operations Officer), Commander Olorundare, that was under the command of Commodore Musa Gemu. He was actually the one who led us on the operation and giving all the orders. We had gone through several illegal refining sites, destroyed them all and then got to this suspiciously narrow water path, there was a little attempt to disguise it as a disused water path, probably one that had been abandoned for a while. However, Commodore Gemu’s vigilance and experience pushed him to lead to inspect the path. We had to remove barricades placed on the access into the way and no sooner had we done that did we come into a winding hideaway, where a huge Cotonou boat, loaded with crude oil, which was definitely stolen, was quietly hidden.
“The Commander ordered that the boat, with its content, be destroyed. Before carrying the order, he asked that all boats and personnel be kept at a distance, leaving the boat of those to carry the order out just a few metres away from the Cotonou boat and its illegal content. Commander Olorundare was the one to set fire on the Cotonou boat. He lighted a substance, standing on the edge of a side of the huge container boat, threw the fire to a far end of the boat and started racing back towards the end where he could join his boat to escape. “But then the surface on which he was running was slippery, as a result of the fact that it was all covered with oil. He almost fell into the boat, which at this point was virtually engulfed by the fire (the fire had sped round the boat). There was panic now, even in the boats that were a distance away because the whole water had crude oil spilled all over the surface and should there be an explosion at that point or the raging fire in the Cotonou boat spilled through one means or the other into the water, all of us, including those in the boats a distance away, could have been fried. The B.O.O managed to jump into the water, some other men jumped in too to go retrieve him and that was how we managed to escape from that danger before there could be an explosion or a fire leak into the water”, Eniye narrated.
In a similar recent experience, now under the watch of a new Commander; Commodore Aliyu Sule, men and officers of the NNS Delta had been despatched to an anti-oil theft/illegal refining duty in Oteghele community, Warri South-West council area of Delta state. This time around, the operators of the illegal oil refineries have managed to device new ideas for cover; new they receded back into thicker forests, some distance from water, now using long spanning hoses to convey crude to their cooking spots.
The operation covered a stretch of illegal refineries, spanning about three kilometres, seven of the refineries in all. After discovering the sites, they had to be destroyed, all of them; the tanks, massive cooking devises and the dugout reservoirs. It was at the point of setting fire on the discovered refineries that a stark form of danger manifested. Starting from the last point of the stretch of refineries, the fire from the tanks would not just burn the tanks and their contents, but leaped on surrounding forest and of course the the oil soaked grounds around.
At some point the whole forest seemed engulfed with personnel encircled by the burning forest. Then came the scariest of the occurrences of the day; there was that deafening explosion, which could have sounded to kilometers away and then fire entered the main hose, carrying crude from the river. It was speeding and almost spitting fire out, making such a eery noise that all on sight started running for dear life. Even as all were running to escape, it was like there was nowhere to run as the fast moving fire seemed to have trapped all inside the forest, making an inevitable end almost most certain. The company was separated as result of the panic. Some of the personnel were soaked in oil. All were thankful to God after escaping from an imminent danger.
As a result of the several operations and the level of successes recorded, the NNS Delta, under the watch of Commodore Gemu, was severally commended by the naval higher command because they saw results in that regards. Under the current Commodore Sule’s saddle, the efforts have not relented, especially now that it is believed that needed platforms for fighting the ill would be made more available, not less would be expected. However, the world only see the results and their beauties, only those who went through the processes can tell the dangers and the sacrifices sown into bringing fort the results.
Workers in the oil and gas industry under the auspices of the Producers’ Forum of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) have called on the government to equip the security forces to fight crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the country.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos at the weekend, the Chairman of the Forum, Comrade Emmanuel Onuorah, said the nation is losing about 250kbpd and 400kbpd of crude oil to theft and pipeline vandalisation, which is the combined production of Ghana, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
Onuorah said, “If the crude oil price is put at an average of $60/barrel, this translates to between $15million and $25million lost in revenue. As a major stakeholder in the industry, we lament the huge loss, which could have been deployed into critical areas of national development.
“Huge unbudgeted costs are being incurred to repair or replace pipelines at damaged/theft points. Government needs to develop the political will to stop pipeline vandalism and oil theft including sanctioning collaborators in the military and security services.
“The security forces should be empowered by Government to secure our national assets instead of the use of unconventional methods through award of contract to those without security and intelligence know-how to protect these critical national assets.”
Listing some of the evils of pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft, he said that pipeline vandalisation is a key cause of massive divestment by the International Oil Companies (IOCs) since 2010, adding that the criminal activities has also forced refineries to shut down since the feedstock is always truncated.
“Pipeline sabotage has continually strained Nigeria to resort to importation of petroleum products and waste the limited resources meant for capital and human development programmes.
“Regrettably, sabotaged pipeline is the major reason for spillages and environmental devastation setting the host communities against both the Oil Operators and the Government.
He therefore called on the government to ensure that pipeline integrity are sound enough to enable safe transportation of crude and refined products all over the country, saying that pipeline installation can now be done using state of the art technology in manner that will be inaccessible to vandals.
Comrade Onuorah expressed the expectation of the Producers Forum that pipeline managers should imbibe the culture of regular maintenance while government will live up to its responsibility of providing adequate security by committing to usage of modern hi-technology equipment for the surveillance and protection of pipelines and other oil and gas installations.
He also demanded that there should be regular surveillance of pipelines to detect and prevent vandals’ action, adding that enabling legal instruments for sanctioning violators/defaulters should be reviewed, while more effective counter-strategy against oil theft and sabotage is implemented.
Former militant leader, ‘Commander’ Bibi Duku, headed a group on security in the Niger Delta for President Mohammadu Buhari. In this interview with SHOLA O’NEIL, he speaks on the alleged fraud in the amnesty and pipeline surveillance contracts awarded by the past administration, expectation of Niger Deltans from the new government, among other issues.
Kidnapping and other vices have prevented people from coming to invest and settle in the region, how do you think this can be avoided?
How to handle kidnapping, killings, sea piracy and other vices found in the region have being well mapped out since two years ago. I came out with how these issues will be dealt with and I went to see the former president to seek his consent, but because I was not in the government, they did not listen to me. We know these criminals and we are ready to collaborate with the new government to tackle this issue once and for all. If the government had been taking care of the youths in the region, I believe that none of them will want to go out and carry out these nefarious activities.
Despite the award of surveillance contracts to ex-militants, pipeline vandalism has continued, what is the solution?
Because of the selfish interests of the immediate past government, they gave these contracts to people they thought will secure the pipelines. Yes, they are capable of securing these facilities, but because of their criminal nature they decided to look the other way. They cannot tell me that they do not know those that are involved in carrying out this vandalism. As a leader in a community, you are supposed to know those that are capable of vandalising pipelines and where all these illegal bunkering is being carried out. If you know and you do nothing, it means you are involved too.
If I was the president, I would arrest all those that were given the power to secure these facilities because they cannot claim to be ignorant of what is going on in their areas. What I am saying is that people who were giving the contract to secure these facilities did not do their jobs because they know those that are vandalising these facilities and they refused to arrest them because they are also part of the rogues.
On the recent renewal of the pipeline contracts and calls for review
These are issues that the new administration has to look into again. We will find out if the contract was really renewed, or they paid the money to these bad leaders and they did not pay the boys.
Do you support calls for scrapping of the surveillance contracts?
If the government comes out and say they have all it takes to guard these pipelines, they should revoke the contract and do the surveillance themselves because I believe that they are the government and they have all it takes to guard lives and property in the country. I don’t see why they should give a security contract to bloody civilians when they have the army, navy and police and other paramilitary outfits.
Some people think that think illegal bunkering cannot take place without the active collaboration of the military
Military officers bribe to come to the Niger Delta region. The military cannot tell me that they do not know anything about illegal bunkering in the region. How will you explain how the barges manage to pass the military checkpoints in the river? Let us not be deceived; we should know whether these people are carrying out their duties or not. This only shows that the military are taking bribes from the illegal oil bunkerers. I know that my people can bribe their way out of anything. The new administration should take these things into consideration.
As somebody that worked for the victory of the new administration, what role do you think you should play?
The role I want to play in this new administration is to fight corruption to a standstill and bring criminality in the creeks and land to its barest minimum. I will fight the bad characters that we have in the region to a standstill and I will not allow any individual to hold us to ransom. I have the capacity to mobilize my men to bring anybody who wants to cheat the people of the region to his knees. I am going to fight against cultism. We are going to monitor all corrupt individuals in the region and report them to the appropriate authorities because we do not expect President Buhari to come down from Abuja to fight the fight for us.
We have a lot of bad leaders in the region who are bent on tarnishing the image of other good leaders. My advice to them is that they should not fight against God because if they do, they will die. Anybody who is fighting against the Niger Delta struggle will die. I also want us to give this new administration some time to settle down. Let us first see what they have for us whether it is for our benefit or not before we start to make any trouble.
