USA Africa Dialogue Series - Revealed: Why Oil Theft Can Never Stop In Niger/Delta - Navy

Revealed: Why Oil Theft Can Never Stop In Niger/Delta – Navy

http://dailyindependentnig.com/2014/06/cant-stop-oil-theft-ndelta-navy/

The Nigerian Navy has identified lack of operational gear as the major reason why the war on oil theft and other vices on the waterways of the Niger-Delta region would not achieve the desired result, at least for now. Besides, apathy by the locals to volunteer useful information has also hampered effective policing of the waterways, it was further learnt.

Commander, Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Delta, Navy Captain Musa Gemu, dropped the hints on Thursday when members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Warri Correspondents’ Chapel, visited him at work in Warri. Gemu bemoaned that the Navy was under-funded, as some of the operational ships and boats were becoming obsolete and cannot be used to access the creeks of the Niger-Delta.


According to him, government has not provided the Navy the needed logistics to enable it police the waters and do battle with those involved in illegalities in the region to a standstill. Such logistics as functional ocean-going boats, ships and gunboats, according to him, are obsolete, pointing out that “most of our boats and ships are as old as 50 years”.


He described as inaccessible most of the creeks where the illegalities were being perpetrated, noting that the Navy’s helicopter had often sighted such illegal bunkering but the obvious lack of flat boats to access the creeks has slowed down the clampdown on the bandits. He recalled an island where massive illegal oil refining was going on, saying it took the Navy about a month to find an access point to the place, as the area was completely difficult to access because of thick mangroves.


On arriving there, Gemu said: “what we saw and met on ground was unbelievable with large quantities of refined crude stored in the ground”. The commander, however, patted his personnel on the back for a well-done job since he took the mantle of leadership at NNS Delta, as he has destroyed about 500 illegal refining plants.