The Nation Newspaper

Tag: theft

  • NSCDC parades father of eight for alleged theft

    The Kwara State Command of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) yesterday paraded a father of eight children, Segun Daudu, for alleged burglary in Ilorin, the state capital.

    The 47-year-old suspect was said to have two wives and hails from Otun Egbe in Kogi State.

    NSCDC State Commandant Yerima Gana said some buyers of the stolen goods, mainly household electronics and generating sets, were also arrested.

    The commandant listed the recovered items from the suspect as a 21-inch TV set, a DVD playing machine, a Tiger brand generator, a clipper and a Nokia handset.

    Gana said: “At noon, on August 4, in Osin Aremu, Asa Dam Road in Ilorin West Local Government Area, Segun Daudu of Ile Daudu, Otun Egbe, Kogi State, forced the door of Mr. Ibrahim Ali, who had gone out for his daily bread with his family. He opened and made away with some of the property belonging to Mr Ali.”

    The commandant explained that the suspect was apprehended with the assistance of members of the community.

    He said Daudu allegedly confessed to the crime, adding that the suspect also named those who bought the stolen goods from him after robbery operations.

    The NSCDC chief urged the public to always give security agencies relevant information.

    Addressing reporters, Daudu said he was a machine operator at a sawmill, adding that he also has a commercial motorcycle business.

    The suspect said the robbery was his third.

    He blamed some unseen forces for his criminal activities, adding that he had left many lucrative jobs without serious reasons.

     

  • Oil theft and a minister’s lament

    Oil theft and a minister’s lament

    Did anyone watch the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala bemoan, on TV, the nation’s daily loss of 400,000 barrels of crude before the House of Representatives Joint Committee on Appropriation/Finance two weeks ago?

    It is not impossible that many Nigerians passed off that latest signature cluelessness of the Jonathan administration to the festering menace as one of one of those things – another instance of the systemic meltdown under the current managers – more out of indifference to its trademark incompetence than anything else.

    Unfortunately, we are talking of a development that is at the heart of the survival of the Nigerian nation, a malaise that the nation can pass off only at its peril.

    Picture a minister in charge of the exchequer passing off a loss nearly equal to 20 percent of its projected revenue for a given year? And this presented merely as footnote in the context of turf war between the executive and the legislature over the shape and size of budget – as against what should have been a red flag to summon citizens to war?

    Don’t ask me how bad things can further get. I doubt if it could be worse.

    Those who say Nigeria is a country of infinite possibilities are damn right. What are we talking about here? At a conservative estimate of $100 a barrel, we are talking of a daily loss of $40 million; that is a princely loss of N2.184tn per annum – a figure nearly 50 percent of the entire federal government budget for 2013 – and this lost to shadowy operators!

    The obverse side of the tragedy is that the Jonathan administration does not even know the fraction of the 400,000 barrels stolen!

    Ten percent, 20, or more? Even President Jonathan’s acclaimed coordinator of the economy wouldn’t attempt a guesstimate beyond that “it is not as if the entire 400,000 barrels is stolen, no”.

    Really? What more does she know? “That whenever the pipelines are attacked and oil is taken, there is a total shut down. All the quantity of oil produced for that day will be lost because it means government cannot sell it and it means a drop in revenue.” Good heavens! How about offering Nigerians that for consolation and that coming from our Ivy League minister!

    Let’s attempt a simple arithmetic, taking a conservative figure of 10 percent of the amount as representing the stolen crude. That is some $4 million dollars daily –lost to the illicit trade and in the Gulf of Guinea region that already enjoys the dubious reputation of being one of the most under-policed regions of the world?

    Well, I’m told that the sum is enough to finance Gulf War 11!

    Is anyone still in doubt that the nation is sitting on gunpowder?

    And what did our distinguished lawmakers do? Nothing. No summons to the Petroleum Minister. None to the Navy authorities or even the entire defence establishment. Does anyone see how easy it is for the abnormal to become norm in these parts? No wonder our bored but sometimes hyperactive lawmakers have since moved on to attend to other matters!

    In this however, the lawmakers would seem by far less culpable than the ‘dovish’ Commander-in-Chief under whose watch the nation is being violated and bled.

    In the first place, given what we know of the illicit trade, it is hardly done under the cover of darkness. It cannot be. Hard to imagine is how those super-tankers mooring to the shore to steal Nigeria’s crude escape being caught under the radar of the Amphibious Brigade of the Nigerian Army or the continent’s second largest Navy? And we are told that the business is a daily occurrence? Who’s kidding?

    Let me put things in proper perspective. Oil theft is certainly nothing new – at least not in these parts. At Obasanjo coming in 1999, the daily loss to the activities of criminals stood at some point at 100,000 barrels per day. To its credit, the administration, rather than whine about the menace, actually brought the illegal trade down to 30,000 barrels per day or even less by 2003. The reversal of the achievement, which began under the Yar’Adua administration, is what has now hit the record levels of 400,000 barrels per day under President Goodluck Jonathan.

    To have a clearer sense of the disaster that is daily visited on the nation is to imagine a corporation losing nearly 20 percent of its revenue, not to acts of nature but to activities that are within the purview of those charged with running it. Surely, that would be a good ground for an extraordinary meeting by shareholders to sack both the board and executive management; that is if they are lucky to get out apiece as against seeking a renewal of woeful tenure!

    The greater tragedy is that all this is happening at a time of great dynamism in the oil industry globally. One of the major developments is the revolution in shale oil sub sector primed to ensure that oil imports by leading consumers like the US is drastically curtailed. From barely 111,000 barrels per day production in 2004, the United States ramped up its shale oil output to 553,000 barrels per day in 2011 – an annualised growth rate of 26 percent during the period. As if the trend is not ominous enough for the oil-producer OPEC cartel, the country’s oil imports is said to be down to its lowest levels in two decades with shale oil projected to displace hydrocarbon imports by 35-40 percent in the long term.

    If you thought that an OPEC member country like Nigeria ought to have gone to the drawing board to assess the likely impacts of the shale oil revolution on its revenues, budgets and the economy as a whole, you are tragically mistaken. Indeed, OPEC’s sixth largest producer hasn’t even shown signs of joining the debate anytime soon, not to talk of seeking to evolve a strategy to mitigate the potential long term effects of the revolution on its revenues. Instead, what we have is a nation hung on the menace of oil theft, a legislature on spendthrift mode, and a President on global shuttle looking for foreign help to protect its exclusive economic zone when he should be at his War Room issuing orders to his men to end the menace!

    Let me reiterate what I said at the beginning; it couldn’t get worse. I mean it.

  • Oil theft: Weird ignorance

    Finally, this government admits that it has failed woefully but even in that admission, it still denies that fact and chooses to exhibit what someone has described as “weird ignorance” (an act of pretending to be confusedly stupid or vice-versa). In this merry state, you play at being perfectly dumb, you simply roll with all the punches and allow all the barbs to fall at your side as if you are wearing odighi eshi bullet proof. This is the only meaning Hardball could read from Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s outcry last week that Nigeria loses 400,000 barrels of crude oil to thieves every waking day!

    By this supposedly arm-wringing confession and prostrate admittance of failure, one expected her to throw in her resignation letter in the circumstance that her boss is politically forbidden from resignation. Okonjo-Iweala ought to resign and others like the Oil Minister, and all the heads of the oil parastatals ought to be cleared out for abysmal failure. How could a country lose N6 billion everyday under their watch yet they still enjoy the pleasure of clinging to their seats? Unless there is something else to the story, how could a country be haemorrhaging to the tune of about N2.2 trillion per annum yet nobody is taking responsibility and none getting fired? Are we going to be moved to act only when we lose our entire oil revenues to ‘thieves’?

    Government’s admittance that it does not know how to protect the country’s most important asset is to admit that it is no longer fit to run the economy and manage the country. They are simply admitting that the so-called oil thieves have out-smarted and grown bigger than the government, the entire military and security agencies of state; the simple import of Okonjo-Iweala’s outcry is that our sovereign state is in retreat if not surrender. If our government cannot protect what is most important to us, the implication is that the rest of us citizens are doomed.

    If President Goodluck Jonathan and members of his cabinet care, if they wish to know the truth and if they wish to escape the perdition of history, they must accept that the rampaging oil theft phenomenon if not contrived and orchestrated, is the result of unbridled corruption. When the other day the president told us that he didn’t give a damn about showing good personal examples in the fight against corruption, he never realised this singular canker could utterly overwhelm him and torpedo his government. Corruption is like the thief you come upon harvesting in your farm, if you hesitate immediately holler and chase him, he will sooner begin to holler and chase you. The day Jonathan begins to show that he no longer co-habits with corruption and starts to deal decisively and openly with the corrupt people around him most of our national challenges will begin to abate.

    We have been told that the National Economic Council (NEC) has approved a task force to tackle the problem. This is merely tunneling down the grimy paths of corruption. The legal task force, to be headed by the Attorney–General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke and to be populated by all sorts will begin by trying about 500 alleged thieves. So we actually have 500 oil thieves locked up somewhere awaiting prosecution? Who are they? Are they little pilferers or the powerful rogues?

    Finally, let’s not kid ourselves that the NNPC does not know what to do to protect our oil pipes; that the DPR does not know what metres to install to capture production figures; that the navy is supine and incapable of manning our waterways and that the judiciary could not prosecute and jail nary one oil thief of note all these years? One more point: Hardball insists that the Federal Government is up to its usual tricks again, especially with a major election around the corner. If they do not have any shame up there, we are still quite bashful down here. It will actually require an invisible sub-marine to steal this quantum of oil daily; and they forget that this is not the only oil producing country in the world. Do we need lessons from Ghana?

     

     

  • Outrage as police detain minors for ‘theft’

    The detention of three minors for alleged theft by the Delta State Police Command in Warri, Delta State, on Sunday has sparked public anger against the ‘B’ Division Police Station in the Oil City.

    The children – aged between six and nine years – were allegedly picked up by policemen from the ‘B’ Police Division, Okumagba Layout, over allegations that they stole a bicycle.

    Two of the ‘suspects’ are brothers.

    They were picked up after a man reported that the trio stole his son’s bicycle.

    It was gathered that efforts by their parents to secure their release on Sunday were futile.

    This was because the investigating officer insisted on collecting N10,000 per child for bail.

    Much to the annoyance of the parents, the minors were reportedly locked up with other crime suspects in the cell till yesterday.

    A source said: “All our efforts to secure their release yesterday proved abortive because the police demanded N10,000 per person.

    “We cannot understand how the police can detain children, who are less than 10 years, with suspects who could be hardened criminals and even paedophiles.

    “This morning, they released the youngest child, who is six years old, because they said their investigation showed that he is innocent.

    “One of the nine-year-olds was released after his mother paid N6,000 yesterday morning.

    “But the other one is still there because his father said he won’t pay any money for his release.”

    Efforts to reach the Divisional Police Officer, T.M Samuel, were abortive.

    The Commissioner of Police, Ikechukwu Aduba, was yet to respond to a text message sent to him yesterday.

    One of the mothers told our reporter at about 6pm yesterday that her husband was on the way to ‘B’ Division police station to secure the release of one of the boys.

    She said: “Although they (police) demanded N10,000, we were only able to raise N6,000 and that was what he took to the station.

    “I pray that they will release him.”

  • Is Anti-Mobile Phone Theft Initiative dead?

    Is Anti-Mobile Phone Theft Initiative dead?

    Eight years ago, the Anti-Mobile Phone Theft Initiative (ANTI-MOPHTI) was born. It brought hope that with its coming, it will help in reducing theft of mobile phones. In the last two years, ANTI-MOPHTI has been inactive, provoking comments on what has become of it. Has it been abandoned by government or is it being tinkered with to strengthen it? LUCAS AJANAKU reports

    He was sleeping when they came in. Their mission, was not to kill or destory, if their victims cooperated. All they were interested in were their victims’ mobile phones. They were masked. In no time, they broke into the home of Austin Christopher, at Cement, in Dopemu, a Lagos suburb, holding everybody in the 12-room apartment (face-me-I-face-you) to ransom for about two hours.

    “They were many that came that night. They gained access to our building by pulling down the entrance door. They were armed to the teeth, but they were not very aggressive except for those who were not willing to cooperate by surrendering their mobile phones. They brought a bag into which everyone willingly dropped his/her mobile phone. After the operation, they fled,” he recalled.

    Kunle Akinwumi will not forget the experience he had two years ago when he went to buy a new mobile phone at the popular Computer Village, Ikeja, Lagos. He bought the phone for N55,000, brought it home, inserted the battery and started charging it in his bedroom. Time was about 7.30pm and he had slept off ostensibly because of the heavy traffic on his way back to his Akowonjo home in the suburb of Lagos.

    “I put the handset on top of my reading table in my bedroom, very close to the window. I plugged the charger to the socket very close to the table and slept off. When I woke up, the handset was nowhere to be found. I raised an alarm only for a neighbour who had had a similar experience to draw my attention to the mosquito net on my window. It had been skilfully torn and a long stick used to drive the handset to the window area where it was disengaged from the charger,” Akinwumi told The Nation.

    Austin and Akinwumi are examples of victims of mobile phone theft. While they are happy to tell their stories, not many are alive to tell theirs because the injuries sustained while being dispossessed of their phones led to their deaths. Most of these stolen phones were later traced to the second-hand mobile phones markets without justice being done to the victims.

    Though there are no official statistics, stolen mobile phones are estimated to run into millions of naira. This estimate is predicated upon the fact that, accordimg to figures from the Nigerian Commuications Commission (NCC), the total subscribers data released at the twilight of last year stood at 109million.

    Worried by the menace, the National Association of Telecoms Subscriber (NATCOMS), in 2005 sold the Anti-Mobile Phone Theft Initiative (ANTI-MOPHTI) idea to NCC at the Telecomms Consumer Parliament held in Lagos.

    NATCOMS National President, Deolu Ogunbanjo said: “It is to ensure that stolen phones are blocked/disabled, and are prevented from being used on any network in Nigeria, through the Central Equipment Identity Registry (CEIR) used in detecting the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI)/Serial Number, through dialing the code *#06# on GSM Mobile Phones.”

    The NCC embraced the initiative and organised a forum about three years ago. The forum recommended that the Anti-Mobile Phone Theft Service must be free to subscribers/consumers.

    NCC also registered Messrs NetVisa Nigeria Limited as the company to run the Anti-Mobile Phone Theft Service. After dotting the lines with the stakeholders in telecoms industry, the initaive was endorsed by and launched by former Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili.

    But lack of equipment to identify fake mobile phones may have put this laudable project in the cooler. The registration system, known as IMEI, can only identify genuine phones from big manufacturers, such as Nokia, Samsung, LG and others.

    Globally, mobile phones are assigned a unique 15-digit IMEI code upon production, which is the backbone of genuine handsets.

    In Nigeria, mobile phone vendors are expected to register their handset models with the regulator. However, this has seen only big market players comply, while a significant number of traders operate without the due process.

    Major handset manufacturers selling in Nigeria include Nokia, Samsung, LG, Sony, and Ericsson. Mobile operators say genuine phones register both the IMEI code along with a caller’s number on their systems while fake gadgets record only the caller’s details.

    This made the plans by the NCC to bar the use of stolen phones in telecoms networks in Nigeria to crumble like a pack of cards.

    Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, said most of the phones had only batch numbers that could make it impossible to disable just one phone. Every mobile phone is assigned an IMEI number that is unique to it.

    Thus, by supplying the IMEI of a stolen phone, an operator could easily block the use of the phone on the network and render the phone useless to the thief thereby serving as a disincentive to potential phone theives.

    Juwah said most of the phones that came into Nigeria had batch IMEI numbers, which is not unique to one phone but to as many as five million phones.

    According to him, the implication of this is that disabling one stolen phone from use in a network could also deny 4,999,999 other phones that are not stolen access to the networks.

    “Barring of stolen phones could not succeed in the country because of the problem of batch equipment identity registry. Sixty per cent of phones in Nigeria come from China. Many of the phones that come in here are fake.

    “If you bar one phone, you must have barred another five million phones. We are still looking at the issue with new technologies,” Juwah promised.

    He said the agency bore no resposibility for the preponderance of fake phones in the country, adding that different ports of entry had prototypes of phones approved for use in Nigeria.

    Under the agreement, anyone whose phone was stolen could report to Netvisa and submit the IMEI number so that the phone could be barred from use in all the networks.

    The rationale was that if stolen phones could not be used in any network, the motivation to steal would not exist, thus the high incidence of the stolen phones would be minimised, if not eliminated.

    The existence of a flourishing used phones market where stolen phones could easily be sold is also fuelling the predilection of mobile phones theives to keep doing the business..

    The Preponderance of fake/substandard mobile phones has become an issue in the telecoms sector. The NCC and Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) are said not to be doing enough in this respect. In some cases, both NCC and SON officials have at different times, stormed the shops where such phones are sold to effect seizures and at times, arrest the dealers. Despite this, importers and sellers of these substandard phones have remained undeterred as fake phones and accessories still flood the market.

    The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) said the best way to eradicate them from circulation would be to compel the telecoms operators to switch off all fake and substandard mobile phones from their networks. The NCC, the body argues, must compel the telecos to switch off the fake phones to render them useless. Though reliable statistics are hard to come by, it is estimated that more than half of phones in the country are fake or sub-standard.

    ATCON President Lanre Ajayi said any device that is not type approved by the NCC should not be used on any network. He urged he Commission to ensure that such devices are not allowed on any network in the country.

    A security expert and coordinator, Crime Prevention Campaign Organisation of Nigeria, Temitope Akindele, said the NCC should urgently revisit the Anti-Mobile Phone Theft Initiative. “Every government agency saddled with curtailing the influx fake mobile phones into the country must rise up to the challenge. Aside the security threats, these phones are said to be injurious to health and even compound the poor service delivery issue in the telecoms sector. NCC should go back to the drawing board and revisit mobile phone registration.”

     

  • Saudi amputates Nigerian’s hand over theft

    Saudi authorities on Wednesday chopped off the hand of a Nigerian man convicted of theft, in compliance with the Islamic sharia law strictly applied in the kingdom, the interior ministry said.

    Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim was convicted of theft and sentenced to having “his right hand amputated” the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.

    The punishment was executed in Mecca where the theft took place, it said.

    The AFP news agency says the kingdom applies the Islamic sharia law, including executions by the sword for people convicted of rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking.

     

  • JTF arrests two Shell officials for oil theft in Rivers

    The Joint Task Force (JTF) has arrested two officials of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) in Rivers State for oil theft.

    Operatives of the JTF, codenamed Operation Pulo Shield, on Monday night arrested Bori Friday and Young Apahia at Kporgho-Ogoni in Gokana Local Government Area and handed them over to the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

    The suspects are Shell’s surveillance workers.

    Spokesman of the 2 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Bori Camp, Port Harcourt, Maj. Michael Etete, who doubles as JTF Sector 2 spokesman said the suspects were arrested at about 9:30pm.

    Etete said: “Troops of Sector 2, JTF Pulo Shield on patrol discovered an illegal connection on SPDC’s pipeline in Kporgho.

    “Two SPDC surveillance staff were found on the scene and were suspected to be responsible for the vandalism. The two suspects were arrested and transferred to NSCDC, Rivers State Command, for prosecution.

    “All oil companies are advised to weed out persons of questionable character in their employ.”

    He said JTF is committed to ending crude oil theft and illegal bunkering.

    Shell spokesman Mr. Precious Okolobo refused to comment on the arrest

     

  • Nigeria loses $7b to crude oil theft

    Nigeria loses $7b to crude oil theft

    widespread theft of crude oil has cost the country $7 billion this year, the International Energy Agency said yesterday in a monthly report on oil production around the world.

    The agency noted that Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the country’s largest oil producer, had already said its quarterly results would be down about 20 per cent after a series of pipeline theft attacks.

    The agency also said crude oil production in Nigeria dropped to its lowest level in two and a half years in October to about 1.95 million barrels a day because of flooding in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

    Militant attacks in the region dropped after a 2009 government-sponsored amnesty programme. However, crude oil thefts have skyrocketed, likely supported by some security forces and politicians.

    Government is also believed to be considering a review of the N5.6b pipeline surveillance contracts it awarded to companies owned by former militant leaders.

    The Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology yesterday said oil companies in the country stop oil spills.

    He said this has become necessary as a result of its devastating effect on the environment and livelihoods of the people.

    Chairman of the committee Senator Bukola Saraki spoke during the opening of a public hearing on the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) Amendment Bill 2012 in Abuja.

    He lamented that the statistics of oil spills in the country is “shameful” while the impact on the environment is “offensive.”

    He noted that the Bill, entitled: “An Act to amend the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) establishment, etc, Act 2006 and for other matters connected therewith”, is aimed at redressing the legal loopholes in the existing Act.

    Saraki said: “Oil spill is ravaging our environment and has become one of the greatest threats to our sustainable development.

    “This amendment Bill is a clarion call to us all, to put a stop to this.

    “It can no longer be business as usual.”

    He noted that the level of spills in the country is a reflection of the “total disregard placed on our environment and the dignity of our people.”

    He added: “Without a doubt, oil spillage is dealt with all over the world as an environmental issue and a human right issue that goes to the quality of the environment and the value of life of those impacted by spills.

    “It is erroneous to continue to view oil spills as a necessary consequence of oil exploration.”

    He stated that it was obvious that the Act setting up NOSDRA is presently deficient to meet current challenges posed by oil spill and at such a better legal framework is required.

    He said: “This bill seeks to cure the observed deficiency in the previous law by tweaking the institutional framework for oil spill management and regulation to make it more efficient.

    “Our objective is to reverse the ugly trend of endless spilling and devastation of our environment and the repugnant impact on our people.”

    He stated that the bill does not seek to make life more difficult for oil operators and business partners.

    “This bill seeks to make business more peaceful, the regulatory and governance system much clearer and predictable for all and achieve a more livable environment for our people.

    “This bill also seeks to provide specific powers that will help deal with the regulatory confusion in the sector, which has pitched certain government agencies against one another and inhibited effective regulation.

     

     

     

     

  • Court quashes N595m theft charge against Cross Country boss

    Lagos State High Court, Igbosere yesterday dismissed a N595million theft charge brought against Chairman of Cross Country Transport Limited, Bube Okorodudu by the state government.

    He was charged with two counts of obtaining by false pretence and stealing the sum from Chief Executive Officer of Tetrazini Food Limited, Donatus Okonkwo.

    However, Okorodudu, through his lawyer, Ladi Williams (SAN) sought an order of court quashing the two-count charge.

    Ruling on the application yesterday, Justice Samuel Candide-Johnson said the prosecution did not exhibit both the legal advice by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and the police investigation report on the matter.

    He said it was unfair to ascribe criminality to Okorodudu in the face of inconclusive evidence, adding that the absence of DPP’s advice left him with no choice than to dismiss the charge.

    The judge held that the information constituted an abuse of court process, and therefore made an order “quashing the two-count charge.”

    The Directorate of Public Prosecution, Lagos Ministry of Justice had said in the charge that Okorodudu, sometimes in April 2008, at Victoria Island, Lagos obtained N595 million as full purchase price of property at Plot A14, Lekki-Pennisula Phase 1, from one Prince Donatus Okonkwo.

    It said he fraudulently misrepresented to the purchaser that he had paid to the Lagos State Government the full price and obtained deed of occupancy, knowing fully well that such representation was false.

    However, Okorodudu’s lawyer said his client was not properly served with the information. He added that the charge amounted to abuse of court process, and that the police investigation was incomplete.

    The lawyer told the court that the proof of evidence did not disclose any prima-facie case against Okorodudu, and that his client ought not to be charged in a criminal court as the matter was a civil case.

    Besides, he said the information was improper and amounted to oppressive use of power by the Lagos Attorney-General, on whose behalf the charge was filed.