Still On Illegal Oil Bunkering

The Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi last week an

nounced plans by his administration to acquire two new helicopters, ostensibly to check the rising wave of crime and illegal oil bunkering in and around the state. Speaking at the 2nd Town Hall meeting of Rivers community in Abuja, Amaechi lamented the huge environmental damage that pipeline vandalism and illegal refining was causing in the state.

According to the governor, the security aircrafts would be equipped with cameras for effective tracking of criminals even as the State pursues a new environmental law that would enhance better management and curb pollution arising from oil bunkering.

This renewed effort at tackling the menace of illegal oil bunkering in the state, further confirms speculations in some quarters that oil thief in the region may be assuming a new and dangerous dimension that could lead to more economic and social crises.

The suspicion is that even security operatives detailed to curb illegal oil bunkering can no longer be completely absolved of complicity in the crime. That they pick and choose who to apprehend and who to let go, depending on compliance by such oil thieves. This is more so because of the apparent boldness of perpetrators and the silence of the forces at the various points the business takes place.

A recent newspaper report listed three main cabals comprising civilians and top military brass in collaboration with some foreigners as forces behind the upsurge in oil theft. The country is said to be losing N7 billion yearly. This cost represents the total cost of 180,000 barrels being lost to illegal oil bunkering per day, whereas the nation’s oil output is just about two million barrels per day.

Apart from the recent arraignment, by the EFCC, of a ship Captain, Musa Mohammed and four of his crew members, before a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on four count charge of illegal dealing in petroleum products, very little is being done to tackle oil theft in the country.

It is therefore a welcome development that the Rivers State Government is changing its strategy through the deployment of new technology. There is no doubt that the magnitude of the crime calls for more drastic and sophisticated measures.

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, has also acknowledged the rising incidence in the last twelve months, but assured the nation that government was confronting the menace headlong. Indeed the Federal Government has responded to the rising crime through the deployment of more troops to the Niger Delta region but the success is yet to be seen.

At the Marine Base area of Port Harcourt, for instance, it is not uncommon to see security operatives sitting at one end and watching, while the illicit oil deal is transacted at the opposite end giving a clear indication that an understanding may have  been reached on who gets what at the end of the day.

Even more worrisome is the recent revelation that the people now involved in the business are total strangers, as fronts of people from some of the major tribes of Nigeria as the Niger Delta youth appear to have been driven out of the illicit business by the military and ominously replaced with people who represent some critical interests. That the faces of the operators are those of none Niger Deltans is very clear.

The Tide is very concerned by the kind of things that happen around the oil industry. It is such that has discounted patriotism and concern for the future of the people. Nigeria is the only country where people bring in foreigners to steal their crude and insist on selling to foreigner’s petroleum products subsidized for Nigerians. The list is indeed endless.

Oil theft is an economic crime that no responsible government should allow to go on unchecked. It does not only deplete government revenue earnings capability, but also degrades the environment; endangers vehicles with ill-refined products and causes avoidable deaths through kerosene explosions.