CDS: Military Jailing Officers Complicit in Oil Theft, Assets’ Vandalism in Niger Delta

•Accuses communities in oil-bearing areas of connivance 

•Alleges many IPOB agitators are ritual killers, kidnappers 

•Says Finnish government must call Simon Ekpa to order

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa, has said that the Nigerian military will not cover up for any of its officers found to be culpable in the massive oil theft and assets’ vandalism in the Niger Delta.

The military chief who spoke on Channels Television, insisted that the armed forces will continue to deploy a lot of efforts in dealing with the issue of illegal bunkering and pipeline vandalism.

Nigeria has for over three years been unable to meet its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil production quota, only managing to drill 1.25 million bpd of the 1.74 million bpd allocation in November due majorly to the menace .

Musa argued that apart from the environmental challenge that oil theft was creating, Nigeria was also losing a lot of money to the problem, blaming communities in the Niger Delta of aiding and abetting the economic saboteurs.

“We do understand that the Niger Delta, especially the water body is massive. It’s not a place that you just walk and arrest everybody. We have challenges in a lot of the communities. Some communities even provide protection for these oil thieves. On a daily basis, we destroy illegal oil refineries.  As you are doing that, you are turning around, they’re fixing them back.

“They’ve developed the capacity to fix them at a very short instance. We have seen situations where 8 kilometres away,  pipelines are perfectly connected to individual houses and compounds and they are moving these things out. We cannot be everywhere,” he argued.

On the allegation that officers lobby to be deployed in the Niger Delta because it is lucrative to work in the region, Musa acknowledged that he had also heard such rumours, but explained that transfers are usually based on performance.

He stressed that commanders who do not do well are quickly redeployed or made to face the law in cases of infractions, including being sent to prison.

“We have in the past posted some people and they didn’t do well and we changed them very quickly. But what I can tell you is that we monitor what commanders are doing. Anyone that we find is doing anything illegal, we address them as quickly as possible.

“ I can guarantee you that anybody that’s found to be doing anything illegal, especially members of the armed forces, we will take adequate action against that individual. And we have continued to do that. That’s why you see all the operations, we have established standing court martials which jail personnel when they commit these offences.

“And I can tell you for free, probably you visit a lot of the prisons around the country, we do not hide anybody who is a criminal and we have zero tolerance for criminality,” he assured.

On the recent clash between the security agencies and Tompolo’s pipeline surveillance boys, the CDS stated that it was a case of miscommunication.

He explained that the said complicit ship had already been arrested by the armed forces before officials from Tompolo’s company approached to apprehend it, noting that the altercation had since been settled.

Stressing that Tompolo’s Tantita was engaged by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Musa noted that all those involved in stamping out vandalism and oil theft in the region must work as a team to get any reasonable results.

According to him, most of the locals employed by the surveillance companies know the general areas more and should therefore provide actionable intelligence.

“I can tell you that most of the areas where we have challenges of crude oil theft are  the abandoned oil wellheads and we have consistently requested that those wellheads should be permanently blocked.

 “If we block them completely, people will not have where to fetch crude oil,” he said, adding that there are thousands of such wellheads in the Niger Delta.

In the South-east, Musa said that although the military was getting a lot of support, it was unacceptable that one Simon Ekpa will sit in Finland and be causing confusion in Nigeria.

“The Finnish government must stop him from doing it. If they say he’s their citizen, this is affecting another sovereign nation. And for whatever reason, you should call him to order, because I know they will not take it if it was the other way round or if he was in Nigeria causing problems in Finland,” Musa said.

According to him, there are reports of individuals that covertly support the major actors in the insecurity in the East, contributing money to them, encouraging them and giving them logistics and leadership.

“We want to call on them that the armed forces and other security agencies are going both overtly and covertly.

“Anybody that is found to be supporting them will be treated as one of them. A lot of them are just a bunch of individuals that are misled. There’s nothing like secessionist tendencies. A lot of them are looking for money. They’re into kidnappings and ritual killings.

“We have several videos of what they do to humans. They kidnap people, cut their heads, cut their hands and I think that nobody should support such a thing,” he added.

In the North, he reiterated that the recent bombing of a community in Kaduna was a mistake and that the federal government had set up an investigation on the matter.

But he insisted that all the characteristics of the unintended target pointed to the actions and modus operandi of terrorists, including the fact that the gathering took place at about 10 pm.

Musa said the results of the probe will be made public, stressing that it will not be swept under the carpet, since it will also help the army to improve.