Security Agents the country at One Day Stakeholders Summit on vandalization of oil and gas facilities and installation which held at the PTI Conference Centre on Effurun,Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State stated that “unemployment”is the major reason why Nigerian youths take to pipeline vandalization, illegal oil bunkering and other social vices in Delta State and the Niger Delta region.
The Security Agents which comprises the Nigerian Army,the Nigerian Navy,Nigerian Airforce, the Nigerian Police Force and the Department for State Security,DSS also called for reviewing of the existing laws to enable them prosecute oil thieves.
The Commander 3 Battalion of the Nigerian Army Effurun, Lt. Col. Igwe Moukeh said other reasons for the vandalization of oil facilities include”inadequate intelligence gathering and sharing among security agencies while the pipelines in the riverine areas are not deep enough”stressing that is where the vandalization takes place.
According to Lt.Col. Mouke “vandals break well heads in farm tanks and extract crude.
While lamenting the release of suspected oil thieves, Lt. Col. Mouke,”it is disappointing because the activities of the pipeline vandals and oil facilities is destroying our common heritage and it is discouraging seeing the suspects released.”
He called on the Judiciary to review the existing laws with a view to bringing perpetrators to justice.
The Chief Staff Officer Logistics of the Nigerian Navy,Commodore
A.T. Olawumi who spoke on behalf of the FOC Oghara in Delta State corroborated his Army counterpart saying,” There is nothing the Navy can do. Government has to create jobs for our youths so that they don’t go back to the creeks”adding that,”ineffective and corrupt law enforcement officers, low conviction rate for suspected oil thieves are other reasons for the vandalization of oil facilities in the country.”
Commodore Olawumi emphasized that the Nigerian Navy does not have the power to prosecute any suspect.
In his words,”we hand over to the police for prosecution the same people we have arrested before” just as he called on the Presidency to empower the Navy in other prosecute pipeline vandals as well as suspected oil thieves.
Air Commodore Dudu Shola of the Nigerian Airforce in Delta State called on government at all levels to create the enabling environment to avoid continuous pipeline vandalism amongs unemployed youths in the state stressing that without the development of the youths its aircraft cannot do anything without solving the remote problems.”
Air Commodore Shola appealed to the Niger Delta Development Commission,NDDC and the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission,DESOPADEC to factor youth development programme in its budget pointing out that it will go a long way in solving the Niger Delta problems.
Delta State Police Commissioner,CP. Alkali Baba Usman and the Deputy Director General of State Security Service,Delta State Command, Mr. Mike Obaje supported the views of their counterparts and called for proper intelligence gathering and sharing among security agencies.
Earlier,Delta State Governor,Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa bemoaned the high rate of empowerment among youths in the state due to the relocation of their operation and head offices to other states.
Governor Okowa called on oil companies who have relocated their offices from Delta State to come back and help create job opportunies for its teeming youths.
He noted that out fourteen oil companies only five operates currently in the state.
A research fellow of Peace &Conflict Studies,Institute of Strategic Studies University of Ibadan, Dr. Stephen Demola Faleti in a lecture charged the Delta State Government to make oil assets security planning as well as build synergies between government and civil societies in addition to ensuring better engagement of communities allocation among others.
From Mathew Omonigho
