Irabor Calls for Concerted Action to Tame Ungoverned Spaces 

Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja

The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Lucky Irabor, yesterday, called for concerted action to enable government tame ungoverned spaces across the country, which had become hideouts for insurgents and armed bandits.
Irabor spoke as the Defence Media Operations (DMO) said troops operating in the Niger Delta region destroyed 81 illegal refining sites and arrested 81 suspected oil thieves in the last two weeks.

The defence chief, who spoke at an international conference themed: “Africa’s Ungoverned Spaces and Regional Security: Building Resilience in Democratic Institutions”, hosted by the Centre for Strategic Research and Studies of the National Defence College, said there was an urgent need to take steps to tackle the challenge posed by ungoverned spaces..

According to him, “It is imperative to state that most of the security challenges confronting Nigeria, in one way or the other share similarities with the challenges in other parts of Africa. Triggers and enablers of conflicts across Africa, such as ethno-religious intolerance, political instability and corruption create conducive atmosphere for insecurity to thrive.

“Moreover, these destabilisation agents find safe haven in Africa’s land and maritime domains that have little or no governance presence. Based on this, many scholars have to attain appreciable level of economic development, which has been exacerbated by myriads of security challenges coming from different fronts,” he said.

Irabor stated that the circumstances persisted, because “criminals have a place to hibernate and operate from. Today, you hear about terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, sea piracy, and drug trafficking, amongst others, because there is a thriving place for criminals to operate from”.
He, therefore, called for concerted action to address the situation.

Meanwhile, the Defence Media Operations (DMO) said troops operating in the Niger Delta region, destroyed 81 illegal refining sites and arrested 81 suspected oil thieves in the last two weeks.

At a briefing in Abuja, the Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj Gen Musa Danmadami, said the operations conducted from November 17 to  December 1, 2002, denied oil thieves N500 million profit.
He said troops of Operation Delta Safe in the conduct of Operation Octopus Grip, discovered and destroyed 254 storage tanks, 173 cooking ovens, 118 dugout pits, and 36 wooden boats.

Troops also recovered 1,060,500 litres of crude oil, 391,000 litres of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) 11 cars, six tankers, eight  pumping machines, three motorcycles, two outboard engines, one tricycle, and five AK47 rifles loaded with 10m rounds of 7.62mm special.