The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Lagos Command, has confirmed the arrest of five suspected oil thieves for perpetrating the crime in the state.
BASIC FACTS
- The NSCDC said it arrested oil thieves in Lagos and Akwa Ibom
- The oil thieves were arrested while moving adulterated AGO from the Niger Delta
- The arrest was made known to the media by the state commandants.
WHAT WE KNOW
The NSCDC, Lagos state Commander, Eweka Okoro, while parading the suspects on Monday, said they were arrested on Friday while reportedly moving adulterated AGO from Niger-Delta into the state.
The NSCDC, Akwa Ibom Command, also confirmed the arrest of three suspected smugglers and seized five trucks loaded with 225,000 litres of adulterated Automotive Gas Oil in the state.
The state Commandant, NSCDC, Sulieman Mafara, while interacting with newsmen in Uyo on Monday, said the suspects were arrested based on intelligence and surveillance by operatives of the Anti-Vandals unit of the command on September 9, along Port Harcourt Bridge by East-West expressway.
NOTABLE QUOTE
“Five suspects and four trucks were arrested late Friday night. These suspects were with suspected adulterated AGO which was just brought into the state. They normally use the Lekki axis instead of the usual Berger axis in order to evade the eagle eye of the security.
“On Friday evening, my men were on ground laying siege to intercept them from carrying out their usual criminal activities. We arrested four trucks and five suspects. They have all pleaded guilty. We have taken the content of the trucks for test analysis.
“This particular arrest is disheartening because they thought they were smart by passing through an unauthorised route. But our men were equally relevant to the job expected of us. We discovered there is a chain of command. We have traced and brought two other suspects. We will allow the law to take its course as soon as we obtain necessary facts from them” said Lagos NSCDC Commandant.
CATCH-UP
Recall that the NSCDC Commandant has disbanded the special anti vandalism unit of the Corp to improve operations of the Corp and reduce abuse by it’s personnel. Federal had last month said it would soon reveal the identities of top personalities behind oil theft in the country.
However, to get to the root of oil theft, security agencies need to go beyond the persons arrested, as the financiers of the illicit business is key to a long term solution.
The economic sabotage in the Niger Delta is an organized crime, which has brought Nigeria`s economy to its knees, especially after several governments have little or nothing to pivot the nation`s economy from oil.
The dependency of the economy on oil have also created cabals whose economic dependency on the black gold is more dare and desperate than even that of the nation`s economy.
Another look is at the operations of the oil majors whose business activities in the Niger Delta have led to environmental degradation and destruction of the economic life of the host communities.
These same environmental hazards have also led to very serious health issues to the people of the host communities on whose lands the oil is mined by these foreign oil companies, who make their billions in total disregard of international practices in the field.
The direct consequence of this agitation from the host communities who have risen in defense of their fundamental right to life to protest against these destructive business activities of these oil companies.
Their agitation have led to vandalizing of pipelines by the Niger Delta militants who now seek for adequate compensations for the destructions and harms caused to the host communities by the oil companies who are in actual sense colluding with the federal government.
The federal government in turn awarded contracts to some of the agitators to provide security to the pipelines, an action that could be seen as paying the militants to stop their acts of vandalism.
In a way, this could be seen negatively by some critics, but that is only when you close your eyes to the actual issues that led to the contract in the first place. Vandalising of the pipelines would have been if the oil companies and the federal government have cared about the host communities.
In any case, however you look at it, there is no ground or moral justification for the northern youths to protest or even be heard speaking against the pipeline contract. They have no locus whatsoever.
Available records show that most of the mining contracts and oil wells are held by contractors of the northern origin, and by implication can be accused of contributing largely to the degradation of the region, from where they transfer billions to the north.
Clariform therefore thinks that rather than protest against the pipeline contract to Tompolo, the Arewa youths should be protesting against the reason and the circumstances that necessitated the contract in the first place.
