…unexplained flamboyant lifestyles, a pointer
…stakeholders trade blame
…as govt seeks to block $1.9bn monthly crude oil theft
Mr.Tonye Cole, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State in the 2023 election, says those responsible for oil theft in the Niger Delta are not hidden and that a first line pointer to identifying them would be by flamboyant lifestyles on the back of unexplained income.
These lifestyle changes, Cole said, usually manifest in the acquisition of exquisite houses, cars and other remarkable cash outflows.
Cole, a former excutive director of Sahara Energies, a player in Nigeria’s petroleum sector, spoke on a Channels Television programme, Sunday Politics.
His observations are coming amid the allegation by a former Niger Delta agitator, Asari Dokubo, that the military is responsible for much of the oil theft in the country.
Dokubo had made the allegation during a visit to President Bola Tinubu in State House, Abuja, on Friday.
The situation is particularly sensitive, given the huge sums said to be involved.
Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, reportedly said in August last year, 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.
The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) also said in April, that Nigeria lost 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at N16.25 trillion ($46.16 billion) to theft between 2009 and 2020.
Tonye Cole said oil thieves must be brought in to be part of the discussion on ending oil bunkering.
“You have to bring them in. They must be part of the discussion. They are not hidden. Some of them may have grown through the creeks, some of them you see their lifestyles change,” he said.
“You see someone whose lifestyle has changed, you see the houses have changed, you see the cars have changed,you see the money that is spent, so you know. This is a society where when we were growing up if you start showing money and no one knows where it’s coming from, everyone will ostracise you from the society.”
He said that Dokubo’s allegation of oil theft against the military is a big issue that must be addressed.
He added that although the military might have been angered by Dokubo’s claim, they would not deny that there are some bad eggs that aid and abet illegal bunkering.
He further observed that if the Nigeria does not address the issue of illegal bunkering, a state of emergency in the oil and gas sector might be the only solution.
For his part, the Director, Army Public Relations, Brig Gen Onyema Nwachukwu, said the Nigerian Army remained vigorously engaged in the fight against illegal oil bunkering, oil theft, illegal oil refining and other sundry crimes in the region with positive results.
Spokesman of the Nigerian Navy, Commodore Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan, said Dokubo had stayed on the same unfounded allegations over the years.
“This is the same song he has been singing for years. It’s not a new narrative from him. He should name names and also intimate Nigerians of his level of involvement.
“He is also looking for his own pipeline protection contract”, he said.
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 during 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.
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 dollars which Kyari reportedly said the Nation loses to crude oil theft monthly.
