…accuses ‘military cabal’
…Navy says present proof
…as govt seeks to revamp economy, plug leakages
The Nigerian Navy has described as spurious allegations by ex-Niger Delta militant leader, Asari Dokubo, that some cabals in the military are involved in oil theft in the region.
Dokubo’s claim, which he made when he visited President Bola Tinubu in the State House, Abuja on Friday, according to Channels Television, comes against the background of a statement credited to Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, in August last year, to the effect that Nigeria loses $1.9 billion monthly to crude oil theft.
Kyari’s claim was further reinforced by Timipre Sylva, former minister of state for petroleum resources, who reportedly said Nigeria loses 400,000 barrels of crude daily to thieves.
But speaking with Channels Television hours after Dokubo’s claim, Director of Naval Information and spokesperson of the Nigerian Navy, Commodore Adedotun Olukayode Ayo-Vaughan, challenged the ex-militant leader to name those involved in such act.
Ayo-Vaughan claimed that Dokubo was only trying to court the favour of President Tinubu with such allegations.
The claim by Ayo-Vaughan that Dokubo was trying to curry favour with the president calls to mind the fact that Dokubo received lucrative pipeline protection contracts from the Federal Government years back, from the administration of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who was in office between 2007 and 2010 when he died.
Dokubo received an annual cash payment of US$10 million a year from Abuja as part of the federal “pipeline security protection fee” to protect the Rivers State pipelines and creeks, it is reported.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government in August last year awarded a similar pipeline surveillance contract to Tantita Security Service Nigeria Ltd, a company owned by Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo, to the tune of N48 billion (N4 billion per month).
Tompolo is a former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) and a perceived rival of Asari Dokubo. Both men would be co-stakeholders in the nation’s crude oil security ecosystem, alongside the military, if not contenders and rivals.
The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) said in April that Nigeria lost 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at N16.25 trillion ($46.16 billion) to crude oil theft between 2009 and 2020.
Orji Ogbonnaya, the executive secretary of NEITI, said this during a policy dialogue on the utilisation of beneficial ownership data in the fight against corruption in Nigeria’s crude swap deals, held in Abuja.
According to Ogbonnaya, the volume of crude oil stolen represented a loss of over 140,000 barrels per day. He added that between 2009 and 2018, the country lost 4.2 billion litres of petroleum products from refineries valued at $1.84 billion.
The data which was culled from the agency’s latest policy brief, titled “The cost of fuel subsidy: A case for policy review”, also stated that the country spent over N13 trillion ($74 billion) on fuel subsidies between 2005 and 2021.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government, beleaguered by debts and discomforts trailing some of its economic recovery policies, is looking to revamp the economy and one way of doing this, economists say, is to block leakages, one of which is the $1.7 billion which Kyari reportedly said the nation loses to crude oil theft monthly.
