June 16, (THEWILL) -President Bola Tinubu on Friday, at the State House, Presidential Villa, Abuja, met with a former Niger Delta militant, Asari Dokubo.
The meeting follows President Tinubu’s recent commitment to combatting crude oil theft in the country.
In line with this promise, he has previously met with other influential figures from the region including Chief Timi Alaibe, the former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), and Dr Dakuku Peterside, the former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).
During a recent gathering with the country’s security chiefs, President Tinubu emphasised his zero-tolerance stance towards oil theft.
Speaking to State House correspondents after the meeting, Dokubo, alleged that 99 percent of oil theft and bunkering in the Niger Delta region were carried out by the Nigerian military, specifically the Army and the Navy.
According to him, even if one billion contracts were awarded to everybody in the Niger Delta to stop the menaces, it will not work because the kingpins are fully armed by the military.
His words: “The Army and the Navy intimidate the Civil Defence, who are by status, the people who are supposed to guard these pipelines.
“They receive a lot of money from NNPC, PCL and the IOCs and just across the corner, you will see a houseboat a few meters from the House boat, you will see an oil bunkering refinery or tapping directly from oil well ends.
“It is very pathetic now. What is happening in the Niger Delta in the past eight years was unprecedented in the history of oil production anywhere in the world.
“The vandals do not only attack the pipelines, they have migrated from the pipeline and have gone directly to the oil well heads and they take directly from the oil well heads. They set up haphazard facilities they call local refinery, artisan refinery. This is crime against humanity, because the livelihood of the people is being totally destroyed.
“The livelihood of the people is totally destroyed. And every meter you see a Naval house boat or an Army house boat stationed.
“So the main culprit are the Army and the Navy. And there are notorious Naval commanders who are known to be kingpins of these bunkering activities.
“Even if they give one billion contracts to everybody in the Niger Delta, because these military men are armed from the Army and the Navy, nothing will happen.
“The President has promised to take decisive action to make sure that this does not continue, it is brought to an end. It is very shameful.
“So I had volunteered to help, to assist and to do the things that are necessary to put a stop to this evil that is being perpetrated against the people of the Niger Delta, the oil community and the whole of Nigerians.”
