Tag: Petroleum Industry Bill

While inaugurating the Committee on the Petroleum Industry Bill, Senate President David Mark suggested death penalty for oil thieves and pipeline vandals. But some lawyers believe that capital punishment will not solve the problem, just as it has not solved armed robbery. For them, the existing laws should be enforced, Precious Igbonwelundu reports.

Senate President David Mark has called for the death penalty for oil thieves and illegal bunkerers to stem pipeline vandalism.

He spoke while inaugurating the Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), noting that capital punishment was most suitable for oil thieves who have made the country lose so much revenue.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has, on various occasions, released statistics showing the havoc the vandals cause.

A report said between August and October 2012, the NNPC System 2B pipeline transporting petroleum products recorded 774 break points from Atlas Cove to Ilorin.

The report said there were 118 break points to Mosimi; 421 ruptured points from Mosimi to Ibadan; 50 vandalised points from Mosimi to Ore and 122 break points between Ibadan and Ilorin.

The effect is that conveying petroleum products across the over 5,000km of vast network of pipelines has become a nightmare.

The attendant dangers has not stopped the perpetrators. There have been a series of pipeline explosions that have claimed hundreds of lives and destroyed properties worth millions of naira.

In May 2006, about 150 people died at Abagbo Village, Eti-Osa Local Government Area (LGA), while scooping petrol from a vandalised pipeline.

Forty- three others were given mass burial in the same area in 2007, as a result of pipeline explosion caused by vandals.

Similarly, scores of Nigerians, including women, children and the aged, were reportedly killed in different explosions, while scooping fuel from a vandalized pipeline in Arepo.

In its quest to address the menace, the Federal Government has constituted a taskforce on petroleum monitoring which includes men of the Armed Forces, the Police, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), to guard pipeline areas and arrest illegal bunkerers and vandals. But this seemed not to have yielded much fruits as the illegal activities increase daily with the perpetrators getting deadlier.

The security agencies have also been accused of conniving with the vandals to steal oil. Where vandals have been arrested, no one has ever heard of a successful prosecution or conviction of the criminals to serve as deterrent to others.

This is despite the fact that Chapter 353 of the Laws of the Federation, 1990, provides for a maximum of 21 years in prison for anyone convicted of pipeline vandalisation or oil theft.

There is also the Petroleum Production and Distribution (PDD) (Anti-Sabotage) Act of 1975. Could it be that these laws are not stringent enough? Will death penalty stem vandalisation of pipelines?

Lawyers, who spoke on the issue, noted that such vices are the least of Nigeria’s challenges. They called on the legislator to rather make corruption a capital offence. They accused the government of insensitivity to the plight of the citizens, which has left vulnerable and unemployed youths with no other option than to fend for themselves.

Although they described pipeline vandalisation as a heinous economic crime that deserves stringent sanctions for offenders, the lawyers blamed the government for non-enforcement of existing laws on economic sabotage.

They differed on the recommendation of death sentence for oil thieves and vandals by Mark. Some of them maintained that such laws were already in existence but underutilised.

Those who spoke on the issue included Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Norrison Quakers; constitutional lawyer Dr. Fred Agbaje; Lagos based lawyers Dr. Frederick Banjoko and Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa and Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikorodu Branch, Sahid Owosile.

Quakers said the statement accredited to the Senate President was “borne out of emotion and concern for the plundering of our common wealth as a nation and as a people”, just as he noted that death penalty will not address the problem.

‘‘Many Nigerians at the top echelon of the military, government and private individuals are involved in plundering our common wealth with impunity, bearing in mind that the various laws in the petroleum sub-sector such as: The Petroleum Act 1969; Oil Pipeline Act 1956; Oil & Gas Pipelines Regulations 1995, among others, regrettably, do not provide or carry heavy penal sanctions.

‘‘Section 4(1) of the Petroleum Act Cap P10 1969, says a person must obtain licence from the Minister to sell, store or distribute any petroleum product in the country. Then 4(6) went further to provide a penalty upon conviction, of two years in prison or a fine of N2,000 or both as well as the forfeiture of the petroleum products in respect of which the offence was committed. The same thing applies for Section 13(2)(b)(iv) of the Petroleum Act, which provides a fine not exceeding N2, 000 for any person who acts without the appropriate licence.

“Section 26 of the Oil &Gas Pipeline Regulations, 1995, provides for the punishment for any person who contravenes the regulation on pipeline building. Such an offender will be liable upon conviction to a fine up to N500, 000 or imprisonment for a term of six months or to both fine and imprisonment.”

Quakers said the provisions of Sections 4, 6 and 13 of the Petroleum Act, 1969, were not strict enough and adequate to tackle oil bunkering and pipeline vandalisation compared to the higher sanction for failure to build a pipeline in line with the laid down regulation as provided for in Section 26 of the Oil & Gas Pipeline Regulations.

“Although there have been talks from all sides that death penalty should be imposed on offenders involved in bunkering and vandalism, I am of the view that such provision would not deter the offenders from continuing with these acts. I agree to an extent that stricter punishments should be meted out such as life imprisonment and forfeiture of wealth amassed or acquired from illegal bunkering activities, if the government will be courageous enough to stamp its authority in imposing stricter sanctions on persons found liable regardless of how highly placed they are.

“The thought of being locked up for a long time in the prison should help in curbing pipeline vandalism. Proactively, proper surveillance machinery should be put in place and monitors connected to a central computer system should be used in detecting any leakage or bust on any of the pipelines in the country. Once this is in place, any form of tampering will be immediately and easily detected and proper actions taken to prevent the destruction from escalating to a disaster.

“Pipeline vandalisation and oil bunkering are also financial crimes because they rob the state of its resources. They should be treated as economic crimes and the Economic and Finance Crimes Commission (EFCC) by its enabling Act is empowered to investigate and prosecute before courts of competent jurisdiction such persons or offenders.

“As we have always maintained, there are enough laws covering the field, and as a country we must never appear to be helpless if only our enforcement and prosecutorial agencies will step up to their responsibilities in the face of clear and unambiguous enabling legislations which can be deployed conjunctively in stemming the tide of illegal bunkering which has also encouraged foreign participation,’’ Quakers said.

Agbaje noted that the Senate President in the recommendation said nothing new. He added that there was a legislation under the Laws of the Federation, 1990, that provides for death penalty or a prison term of not more than 21 years for pipeline vandals.

He blamed the government for the under utilisation of the PPD (Anti-Sabotage) Act of 1975, blaming the connivance of the various agencies as well as the lack of political will by the government for the upsurge in vandalism.

‘‘With due respect to the Senate President, he has not said anything new by recommending capital punishment for oil thieves and pipeline vandals. What he said is in consonance with what the PPD Act says. So, it was an oversight for him to repeat what has been provided for in the law.

‘‘His recommendation is borne out of verbosity. In as much as he has reminded Nigerians that oil thieves constitute economic sabotage and deserve the heaviest capital punishment, he must also be reminded that we also need death penalty for looters of treasury, particularly political office holders and top civil servants, who have nothing else to do but loot us dry. And such death penalty must start now.

‘‘That is the only way the recommendation of the Senate President can be meaningful to average Nigerians. As far as I am concerned, the law is adequate. I am in total agreement with that law because the activities of these vandals, who are highly connected, are affecting our general interest.

‘‘My worry is not with the law but its under utilisation. If the provision of the PPD Act has been followed, with one or two people convicted and executed, others would have learnt their lessons.

‘‘But the government has not shown any activism towards the fullest implementation of the petroleum laws. In spite of the series of pipeline vandalisations and arrests of suspects, how many convictions have been secured?’’ He queried.

According to Agbaje, the government has been engaged in media ground standing as against effective prosecution of vandals. He said because there is a liturgy by the government as well as a growing connivance between suspects and the relevant agencies that is why pipeline vandalism has thrived.

“An example is what happened recently at Ikorodu, where members of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) allegedly arrested some vandals, only for the police to go there and kill NSCDC men and by so doing, freed the vandals.

“Government must show seriousness in the arrest and prosecution of oil thieves including the very highly placed ones. I agree that most judges may not want to deliver death sentences on criminals when they have alternative options, but even 21 years in prison as provided by the PDD Act is enough punishment for anyone convicted of the offence,” Agbaje said.

To Banjoko, there is no aversion to such a proposal if it is intended to discourage the growing dangerous practice which has caused havoc to the nation’s resources. He noted that the penalty for such crime is death in the country’s statute.

He said: ‘‘I do not know if such crime does not already attract death sentence in the nation’s statute. It amounts to economic sabotage, and I believe it should attract capital punishment. Honestly people should be discouraged from acts capable of crippling the nation’s economy.

‘‘The state should also learn from this that it arises from an aversion to the current unjust distribution pattern of the national wealth. Today, the few in the corridor of power enjoy the national wealth more than the rest of us outside. There should be a change of tactics. Corruption in public space should be tackled.

‘‘Mark and others, who have been in the corridor of power for decades, should be ashamed that fraud and corruption are still common among public office holders.

‘‘Mark and others should know that laws, on their own, do not effect necessary changes, but the willingness of the people to appreciate the justice behind the law.

‘‘The Senate President and others cannot continue to enjoy the benefit of a system that shut the poor majority out from benefiting from the national wealth and yet want them to be subjugated by mere enactment of laws.

‘‘What I am saying is that politicians and public officers should change from their greedy and kleptomanic nature. It is only then that we can begin to agree that those who seek to help themselves to the national wealth through any means, illegal bunkering inclusive, are truly enemies of the state, and hence should be classified as economic saboteurs,’’ Banjoko added.

Owosile described the recommendation as taking the country backward. He insisted that the problem was not the existing laws but the enforcement of such laws. The NBA chairman disagreed with the death penalty recommendation, noting that it won’t yield positive result.

‘‘It is like going back in time. Let us appreciate one thing, Law is culture. In our own society, our morality surpasses our legality. That is why, often times, when punishment is too high, the deterrence expected does not come because nobody wants anybody to die.

‘’At the end of the day, it won’t work. We have gone past the period of death sentence. You remember the case of Bartholomew Owoh and the rest of them in 1984. That incidence was a big smear on the administration of General Muhammed Buhari and General Tunde Idiagbon because at that time it was military fiat and they exercised their fiat to kill those people, which backfired.

‘‘Why should anybody take us to that level again? It is not fair. It is not proper. The world is shifting from absolute deterrence to subtle jail term. So how can we go back to death sentence? And all these talk about subsidy fraud, they are not sincere about them, they are not at all. The laws that are existing; how have they enforced those ones before talking about death sentence? I do not agree with them at all,’’ he said.

Adegboruwa said death penalty in any part of the world can never be deterrence to criminal activities. ‘‘In Nigeria today, offences like murder, armed robbery, coup, or mutiny carry death penalty, but till date, armed robbery is on the increase. Abating oil theft is not a matter for sentences and convictions. Those involved in illegal oil bunkering are mostly beyond the law because they are highly placed.

‘‘Empty legislations will not curb incidence of illegal oil bunkering, unless there is the will power by the government to clamp down on the powerful oil thieves. The remedy to a crime of such nature would be to strengthen existing institutions, such as the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Navy, to monitor and regulate bunkering.

“It is common knowledge that most of these big oil thieves utilise the proceeds of their illegal acts to even fund campaigns and elections of some political big-wigs. So, the fight should begin from empowering the requisite institutions, which will in turn put up resistance to the activities of these dubious Nigerians. Their duties must, however, be carried out without interference,” Adegboruwa said.