Naval chief blames EFCC, others for oil theft

Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba

Chief of Naval Staff, Vice-Admiral Dele Ezeoba, has blamed the rising spate of pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft on lack of diligent prosecution of suspects by relevant agencies.

Ezeoba spoke on Sunday in Brass, Bayelsa State, after touring the creeks and military formations in the Central Naval Command.He observed that while security operatives, including the Navy had lived up to their responsibility by arresting suspected oil thieves, prosecution agencies had failed to discharge diligently their duties.

He said there would be reduction in the breach of pipelines and stealing of petroleum products if agencies vested with the power of prosecution arraigned suspects and jailed them.Our correspondent gathered that agencies vested with the power of prosecuting oil thieves are the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the police.Ezeoba insisted that the efforts of the Navy and the Joint Task Force, codenamed Operation Pulo Shield in fighting the menace would amount to nothing without the diligent prosecution of the offenders.

The Navy chief said, “The law enforcement agencies that have responsibility for prosecution should ensure that those culprits who have been caught charged to court are prosecuted and jailed.“That will serve as a deterrent for would-be perpetrators. What we find is that there is more of the surveillance and response but that of enforcement is negligible. This kind of frustrates the efforts of the officers and men, who put their lives on the line to fight this scourge.”Ezeoba also, while visiting Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson, lamented the lack of commitment by oil companies in fighting the menace.

He said oil companies must provide sustainable state-of-the-art security apparatus to aid in frustrating the efforts of oil thieves.He observed that instead of being proactive in the war against vandalism, security agencies were reacting to the situation.Ezeoba added, “What we do as it is today because of lack of some form of commitment by the oil majors to provide state-of-the art 21st century security apparatus to make our actions proactive is preventive rather than being reactionary.

“That is germane to this fight so that we will deter would-be intruders and avert a situation where the pipeline is already breached before we are called in to action. That is the mandate of the oil majors. They have to provide frontline security that will ensure the integrity of the pipelines.”He said the Navy had achieved 80 per cent surveillance of pipelines in the region using its maritime patrol aircraft, helicopters and boats.