News
Widening A Killing Field …Mark’s Death-Penalty Call For Oil Thieves
Since Nigeria discovered crude oil in commercial quantities in Oloibiri in today’s Bayelsa State in the early 50’s, the country’s life has depended largely on what has come to be known as black gold. Indeed, the sustenance, survival and growth of her economy and peoples today is determined by foreign exchange earnings from exports of crude and sale of its refined products to the people.
Crude oil has a history of annexure with impunity, and of systemic denial of peoples of the areas it was sourced. Infact, a visit to Oloibiri would force the first timer to shudder if indeed the product is a curse to the people or blessing only to others, not the people.
That systemic marginalisation, manifested profoundly in the infrastructural decay of host communities and the flamboyance of oil company workers, mostly multi-nationals whose houseboats, were the first source of electricity light, in the usually dark horizon of the once peaceful fishing villages.
With the high economic power of such foreigners, as against the abysmally woeful purchasing power of the locals, the girl became an easy prey to red-eyed multi-nationals who on a near-frequent basis, mindlessly induced the vulnerable lot into early prostitution, while productive young people became their reluctant pimps, escorts or ferry canoe-men for their escapades into the interiors.
But the desecration of the once self-content oil bearing areas was not limited to the socio-economic front. The environmental impact was very huge and indeed threatened the only occupations the people knew, fishing, farming, basket weaving, canoe making and the like. The usually green vegetations turned black as they were totally polluted, resulting in lifeless rivers, farm lands, unfit for fishing and farming, even as the wells, which the locals depended on for drinking water, turned brown.
If the socio-economic and environmental factors were demeaning and made peoples of the oil bearing communities second-class citizens, in their own country, their denial of political space was even more frustrating. Being minorities, it required a thoughtful majority to grant them political space to push the protest, but same was denied even before they were made.
That was on account of a pre-reached resolution by those majority tribes expected to do right. That resolution simply tagged oil as A Gift from God. To whom? A natural treasure. Whose? Hence unbefitting of the special place Agricultural success enjoyed.
Merely because, being majority, those who lacked the said natural and later national gift said so, oil producing areas were willfully denied control of the God given land’s resources as was the case in the days of the groundnut pyramids, cocoa and all. From between 50 percent and 100 percent enjoyed, derivation to oil producing areas, crawled from zero percent, one and half percent, 3 percent, 5 percent and today 13 per cent.
Of course, these were not without protests. Infact, it was when all civil protests made by the people, attracted from the powers that be, the usual response, ‘something is in the pipeline’ that the thoroughly suffocated youth went, in search of the content of the pipelines, directly aggravated also by their systemic denial of sources of livelihood.
Of course, no slave driver willingly frees a good slave without a fight, and so the federal authorities kicked. It was the resultant threat which that face-off posed to the easy sucking of the crude for export and survival of the nation that hastened amnesty for Niger Delta militants.
This brief background has become necessary because of fresh calls to include, oil theft among offences that must attract capital punishment. The question being, can one steal something that belongs to none? A gift from God to all? Like the Air? If there indeed are armed oil thieves, is it not safe to say, that the federal government that forcefully converted a people’s land’s natural gift to a national inheritance are the first culprits?
Without such military might (armed) could the federal government forcefully take what it did not own? (robbery). Were the peoples of the Niger Delta, given the opportunity to decide whether they wished to be a part of the forced amalgamation called Nigeria and for which crude-oil sourced there-from must be for all? Is Nigeria willing to pop that question to the oil bearing communities? To know, if they would wish to surrender their heritage in a Sovereign National Conference?
Last week, Nigeria’s Senate President David Mark canvassed death penalty as punishment for oil theft, due to the damaging effects of the crime to the nation’s survival.
In canvassing capital punishment for crude oil thieves, the key consideration is the threat which the practice poses to the economy of Nigeria, not the marginalisation it’s exploitation and sale had caused to the people whose farmlands and rivers remain the drilling fields with attendant woes. To make oil theft a capital offence therefore, the treasure should first be given to its owners, who alone should complain of the theft of their inheritance and backed by the central government.
What lack of patriotism? I can imagine many wondering. Fact is, wrong as oil theft may be, making it an offence that will attract death penalty is over-widening the nation’s killing fields, and there’s no telling how many Nigerians would be innocent.
Theft or armed robbery flourishes partly because there are willing patrons of the loot the thieve brings. Armed robbery is expensive, so a starter requires a criminally minded rich sponsor for arms. Like armed robbery, crude oil theft is a multi-dimensional crime that covers many skilled and unskilled participants in the banking sector, government, the security forces, multi-nationals, the local refinery owner called ‘kpo-fire,’ the rural trader buying and selling the product, the oil company staff willing to compromise trust for extra earnings, the marketer who mixes adulterated products, the NNPC staff detailed to the discharge point, the tanker driver who sells some drums on the way, and indeed the unemployed youth forgotten by his country, seeking a livelihood, the hard way.
Such is the chain. Such, the number of those likely to be affected. The difference between armed robbery and oil theft however, is that, in the case of the latter, it has always been perceived as a stolen property which when restolen constitutes no offence. This is perhaps why those involved believe that they are merely taking a bit of what has been forcefully made a general gift for all.
Therefore, it will require more than imposition of death penalty to change that mindset. It will require a total remediation of the Niger Delta environment, an acceptance of guilt by the federal government, and an agreement that the product belongs to the owners of the land and rivers the gift was sourced, based on global law who alone should determine what percentage to share or pay in taxes. It is when that ownership is established based on natural law, that an oil thief should be killed for forcefully taking what belongs to another. That too, has a caveat.
The crime must result in the death of the owner to attract the death penalty. Except in very few instances, such is the key ingredient that defines capital punishment in the United States of America (USA) whose democracy we’ve copied.
Perhaps a cursory look at offences that fit the redline will help. (additional facts from the web)
The following are offences that attract either death penalty or life imprisonment in the US
. Causing death by using a chemical weapon
.killing a member of Congress, the Cabinet or the United States Supreme Court
.Kidnapping a member of Congress, Cabinet of the United States Supreme Court resulting in death
.Conspiracy to kill a member of the Congress, Cabinet of the US Supreme Court resulting in death
.Causing death by using an explosive
.Causing death by using an illegal firearm
.Genocide
.First Degree Murder
.Murder perpetrated by poison or lying wait
.Murder that is willful, deliberate, malicious and premeditated
.Murder in the perpetration of or in the attempt to perpetrate any arson, escape kidnapping, treason, espionage, sabotage, aggravated sexual abuse or sexual abuse, child abuse, burglary or robbery
. Murder perpetrated as part of a pattern or practice of assault or torture against a child or children
.Murder committed by a federal prisoner or an escaped federal prisoner sentenced to 15 years to life or a more severe penalty
.Assassinating the President or member of his staff
.Kidnapping the President or a member of his staff resulting in death
.Killing persons aiding federal investigation or state correctional officers
.Sexual abuse resulting in death
.Sexual exploitation of children resulting in death.
.Torture resulting in death
.War crimes resulting in death
.Crimes against humanity
.Attempting, authorising or advising the killing of any officer, juror, or witness in cases involving continuing criminal enterprise, even if such killing does not occur.
Thus, as it may be that a country’s laws are depended largely on its peculiar problems, frustrations, needs, experiences, hopes and fears, and oil theft a major crime against our economy, the offence does not require a capital punishment or a separate law to tackle. The country’s criminal code provides for ways and means of checking theft and robbery, and attracts a death penalty if that crime results in the death of another.
What is required instead is proper policing of our oil and gas production infrastructure by competent, patriotic and indeed God fearing security operatives.
My Agony is that the first victims of such law would be the unemployed youth daily engaged to locally refine crude oil and not all others in the chain that make the theft possible. Or do you not know that the oil thieves and security men posted to such red zones may not be best of friends, but are never enemies in combat, except when the thief is greedy, the security, too pious. And they are few.
The Mayor of Housing, My-ACE China, has alerted the Governor of Rivers, Akwa Ibom, and Abia states to what he calls an emerging ‘Economic Triangle’ within their states.
Mr China, a real estate success strategist who has won numerous local and international awards, has thus drawn the attention of the governors of the concerned states to the emerging development and has urged them to intentionally accelerate the emergence of the economic triangle.
Speaking to newsmen in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital at the conclusion of his business trip to the state, Mr China, who is the managing director of the Housing and Construction Mayor Limited, said the envisaged economic corridor would compete favourably with the Lagos economic hub or even better.
He said: “Talking about ‘Economic Triangle’, the only place that can wrest economic power from Lagos is Akwa Ibom, Abia, and Rivers states axis or corridor. This corridor contains more than Lagos has, if they can be interconnected with smooth roads, ports, and if their blue potentials are unlocked. They will not only wrest power from Lagos but would be more lucrative.”
The investor who is behind the emerging Alesa Highlands Green Smart City in Eleme, near Port Harcourt, said the new ‘Economic Triangle’ has a bigger potential due to massive land assets with the corridor plus blue economy and the existing hydrocarbon industry.
Explaining, Mayor of Housing said Aba (Abia State) provides the biggest fabrication capacity in West Africa to supply goods to the Gulf of Guinea; Port Harcourt provides access to the Gulf of Guinea for off-taking Aba products, and the Uyo provides deep sea port at Ibaka and international airport facilities as well as forest reserves for massive agro-economy.
He said with sea ports in Rivers State and deep seaport in Akwa Ibom, and international airports in Rivers and Akwa Ibom, Aba can focus on adequate power supply and fabrication boom to supply a new booming market around the economic triangle.
By doing this, he said, jobs would spill out in huge quantities and more manufacturers would be drawn from all over Africa to boost the fast coming African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). He said Nigeria would thus have two major trade nodes in West Africa; Lagos and the PH/UYO/Aba triangle.
He said goods going to or coming from Chad, Niger, and the rest of Central Africa can head to the Lagos ports or to the Ibaka/PH ports zone in the new economic triangle.
He said with power supply made stable, good roads, excellent security system, and ease of doing business enthroned in the zone, the South-South and South East would become the biggest economic nerve in the near future.
Mayor of Housing called on governors of the three states to be intentional about the new corridor, put away political differences (if any), and create this corridor by agreeing on projects each state would execute with a short period of time so the states would be linked by good roads, communication, security, trade laws, concessions to investors, etc.
He remarked that northerners were already heading to the Onne Port in Rivers State to export goods, saying creating a commission to oversee the development of the ‘Economic Triangle’ would fast-track its emergence.
He observed that people of the three states are peaceful and usually preoccupied with zeal for economic prosperity, saying that if they are linked to such huge opportunities staring at them in the emerging economic triangle, they would totally shun violence and focus on prosperity.
Mr China insisted that the emerging economic triangle would form a big node not only into the Gulf of Guinea economic zone but into Africa because AfCFTA is about production, certification, market availability, and easy transport nodes by sea and air. He said the new economic triangle boasts of all the factors.
“They can only realise this by working together, through collaboration. One state cannot do it but a triangle of the three will create it through seamless interconnection, ports, industrial park, etc. The people will be the richest and internally generated revenue (IGR) will be the biggest in the country,” he said.
President Bola Tinubu has sent the names of 32 ambassadorial nominees to the Senate for confirmation, days after he sent the first batch of three names.
Among them are the immediate past chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmud Yakubu, an aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri (Delta), and former Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, among others.
“In two separate letters to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, President Tinubu asked the Senate to consider and confirm expeditiously 15 nominees as career ambassadors and 17 nominees as non-career ambassadors,” read a statement on Saturday by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
In the statement titled, ‘Tinubu nominates 32 additional ambassadors,’ Onanuga noted, “There are four women on the career ambassadors’ list and six women on the non-career ambassadors’ list.”
“Among the non-career ambassador designates are Ogbonnaya Kalu from Abia, a former presidential aide, Reno Omokri (Delta), former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmud Yakubu, former Ekiti first lady, Erelu Adebayo, and former Enugu governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
“Others are Tasiu Musa Maigari, the former speaker of the Katsina House of Assembly, Yakubu N. Gambo, a former Commissioner in Plateau State and former Deputy Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission.
“Professor Nora Ladi Daduut, a former senator from Plateau; Otunba Femi Pedro, a former Deputy Governor of Lagos State; Femi Fani-Kayode, a former aviation minister from Osun State; and Nkechi Ufochukwu from Anambra State are on the nomination list,” the statement read.
Also on the list are former First Lady of Oyo, Fatima Florence Ajimobi, former Lagos Commissioner, Lola Akande, former Adamawa Senator, Grace Bent, former governor of Abia, Victor Okezie Ikpeazu, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, businessman, lawyer and Senator from Ondo State, and the former ambassador of Nigeria to the Holy See, Ambassador Paul Oga Adikwu from Benue State.
Among the nominees for career ambassador and high commissioner-designates are: Enebechi Monica Okwuchukwu (Abia), Yakubu Nyaku Danladi (Taraba), Miamuna Ibrahim Besto (Adamawa), Musa Musa Abubakar (Kebbi), Syndoph Paebi Endoni (Bayelsa), Chima Geoffrey Lioma David (Ebonyi) and Mopelola Adeola-Ibrahim (Ogun).
The other nominees are Abimbola Samuel Reuben (Ondo), Yvonne Ehinosen Odumah(Edo), Hamza Mohammed Salau (Niger), Ambassador Shehu Barde (Katsina), Ambassador Ahmed Mohammed Monguno (Borno), Ambassador Muhammad Saidu Dahiru (Kaduna), Ambassador Olatunji Ahmed Sulu Gambari (Kwara) and Ambassador Wahab Adekola Akande (Osun).
“The new nominees are expected to be posted to countries with which Nigeria maintains excellent and strategic bilateral relations, such as China, India, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, South Africa, Kenya, and to Permanent Missions such as the United Nations, UNESCO, and the African Union.
“All the nominees will know their diplomatic assignments after their confirmation by the Senate,” it read.
Last week, Tinubu sent three ambassadorial nominees for screening and confirmation.
The nominees were Ambassador Ayodele Oke (Oyo), Ambassador Amin Mohammed Dalhatu (Jigawa), and Retired Colonel Lateef Kayode Are (Ogun).
All three are in the pot for posting to the UK, USA, or France after their confirmation.
“More nominees for ambassadorial positions will be announced soon,” Onanuga revealed.
The Secretary to Rivers State Government, Dr. Benibo Anabraba, has reiterated that the administration of Governor Siminalayi Fubara remains committed to improving access to quality education at all levels.
Dr. Anabraba gave the assurance while receiving the Deputy Registrar/Zonal Coordinator of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Mr Ayanfemi Adeniran-Amusan in Port Harcourt during a courtesy visit.
He emphasised that Governor Fubara remains resolute in sustaining investment in the education sector to improve the quality of teaching and learning.
According to him, “We appreciate the work you are doing and know that our students are amongst the highest in ranking.
“His Excellency, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, takes education very seriously. He is sponsoring the free registration of students for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in Government Schools.
“Also, Governor Fubara has approved the establishment of Computer-Based Test (CBT) Centres across the State’s three senatorial districts and the 23 LGAs. The project is intended to improve access to digital learning and examination facilities for students so that our children are at breast with digital literacy, a prerequisite for today’s students.
“We are currently working assiduously to get those centres, both mega and mini, across the three senatorial districts and the 23 local government ready in order to meet up with your deadline,” he said.
The SSG also conveyed the assurances of the Governor to WAEC on Government’s willingness in providing land for its Zonal Office.
Earlier, the Deputy Registrar/Zonal Coordinator of the West African Examination Council, Mr Ayanfemi Adeniran-Amusan, promised to collaborate with the State Government in matters concerning education development.
In another development, the Secretary to State Government, Dr Benibo Anabraba, also met with officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, led by the Assistant Director of Intelligence, Rivers State Command, Barr. Ikediashi Nwamaka.
The SSG while appreciating the Agency for its effort in the protection of vulnerable persons, also raised Government’s concern on the activities of orphanages and care homes in unwholesome practices such as child trafficking, abuse of underaged girls also known as baby-factory, and the lack of regulations on surrogacy.
He however assured that the Rivers State Government has already put plans in place towards legislation to regulate these acts against vulnerable persons, particularly women and children.
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