Asari Dokubo: HURIWA Asks Tinubu To Set Up Independent Panel On Oil Theft

…Seeks Severe Sanctions For Culprits

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA), on Saturday, called on President Bola Tinubu to set up an independent panel to unravel the unending mystery surrounding oil theft in Nigeria and probe oil bunkering and allied crimes, especially from 2015 till date.

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the government must not spare the culprits identified at the end of the probe but name and shame them and sanction them severely.

The group’s call comes hours after the allegations by prominent Niger Delta leader and former agitator, Mujahid Asari Dokubo, who accused the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Navy of being culpable of oil theft in the oil-rich Niger Delta area.

Dokubo, who met the President on Friday at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, said, “The military is at the centre of oil theft and we have to make this very clear to the Nigerian public that 99 per cent of oil theft can be traced to the Nigerian military, the Army and the Navy especially.”

“The Army and Navy are behind oil theft. They intimidate civil defence, who are by law expected to protect installations. They tap directly from the oil head. What has been happening in the last eight years is unprecedented anywhere in the world.

“The livelihood of the people is being destroyed. The main culprits are the army and navy. There are notorious army commanders who are known to be the ones behind oil bunkering,” the former militant stated.

The Nigerian Army has since responded to the allegations, saying it has been vigorously engaged in the fight against illegal oil bunkering, oil theft, illegal oil refining and other sundry crimes in the region with positive results.

Also, the Nigerian Navy has challenged Dokubo to produce the names of officers involved in crude oil theft.

In its reaction, HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “The allegations by Dokubo are startling and damning and these allegations must be thoroughly investigated.

“We ask that the President set up a seven-man independent panel of criminologists drawn from reputable global fora to investigate the larger cases of crude oil thefts from 2015-2023.

“The panel should identify, prosecute and sanction culprits in the severest of mechanisms and recover to the last dollar public funds diverted through those stolen crude oil by these rogues no matter their statuses.

“Also, Dokubo who made the allegations must provide irrefutable evidence or be prosecuted for providing false information which is a criminal offence.”

Oil theft has become a malignant cancer in Nigeria for years. Last October, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited said it uncovered an illegal oil connection from Forcados Terminal that operated for nine years with about 600,000 barrels per day of oil lost in the same period.

Similarly, former militant leader, Government Ekpemepulo, popularly known as Tompolo said about 58 illegal oil points have been discovered so far since the operation to end oil theft on the waterways of Delta and Bayelsa states began.

In April, the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative revealed that Nigeria lost 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at N16.25tn to crude oil theft between 2009 and 2020.

On October 6 last year, THE WHISTLER had reported how operatives of Tantita Security laid ambush to a suspected oil syndicate, and apprehended the captain and seven other crew members.

The arrest was made while the criminals were pumping crude oil from an illegal connection which they had fixed to a Chevron pipeline in the Warri River.

One week later, another illegal oil pipeline was uncovered which was used by criminals to steal crude oil from Forcados Terminal in Delta State.

The illegal pipeline was located in
Okuntu Community which is a few metres away from the Forcados crude oil export terminal

The illegal 6 inch pipeline was connected to the 48 inch Trans Forcados Export Pipeline connecting the high sea where crude oil is being loaded into vessels.

It was connected with the primary intention to steal crude oil from the main pipeline operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company and Agip.

The distance from where the illegal pipeline was connected and where it was being used to load stolen crude oil into the ship is between five to six kilometers.

So far, Tantita Security Services working in collaboration with NNPC has discovered over 60 illegal connections to the trans-Escravos, trans-Forcados, and other major trunk lines by oil bunkers in Delta and Bayelsa states.

The Chairman of Heirs Holding Ltd had on Wednesday during the NNPC Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS) 2023 Annual Value Assurance Review (AVAR) in Lagos lauded the NNPC for the effort it is making in curbing crude oil theft.

According to Elumelu, due to the efforts of the NNPC Ltd, Heirs Oil & Gas has witnessed 96 per cent recovery rate.

Elumelu said, “When I listened to the Group CEO speak today (Wednesday), talking about us moving to 2.5 million barrels we challenge him to do more. I believe that it is achievable. From losing 97 per cent of our 50,000 barrels production, interestingly and it will be bad of me to have this platform and not share this here.

“That day, I got a call from the GCEO and I thought he was going to kill me for speaking up, to my greatest surprise, he said to me Tony we are sorry about what is happening, we are doing something about it, it will be corrected.

“They worked as a team and the Board of the NNPC, the FG, the security agencies, and last month our recovery factor was 96 per cent. So GCEO NNPC, you have delivered.

“I speak from experience, a beneficiary and one who cried out before and today standing up today to say we have improved our production and that is what we need to encourage more investments in the industry.”

He added, “Today (Wednesday), we lifted 501,000 barrels of oil bringing our total lifting this year alone to 2.6m barrels of oil. I am a great beneficiary of the new NNPCL