Former Niger Delta warlord and founder of Niger-Delta People Volunteer Force, NDPVF, Mujahid Asari Dokubo, has said that crude oil belongs to the people of the Niger Delta region and not the entire Nigeria.

The former militant leader stated this during an interview with Arise TV on the issue of curbing the growing crude oil theft in the Niger Delta area.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, had on Tuesday said the company had uncovered an illegal oil connection from Forcados Terminal that operated for nine years.

Responding to the issue, Dokubo accused the Nigerian government of injustice against the people of the Niger Delta in handling the oil issue, adding that the oil belongs to the region, and not Nigeria.

He said, “You can’t impoverish a people, you can’t destroy their environment, and expect them to fold their arms and watch. There must be a will to change the narrative in the Niger Delta. But that will is lacking, and we are not able to change this behaviour that the oil belongs to everybody. No, it does not belong to everybody.

“These things are found on the land of the people, and oil production affects the economic activities of these people. It affects the environment. It affects the morale of the people.

“You brought expatriate workers. They do all sorts of things and leave. So, there must be a will to correct these imbalances, these injustices that have been perpetrated in the oil industry. Unless we do this, this story of trying to prevent oil theft will not succeed,” he added.

Nigeria has seen increased oil theft in recent years. The NNPC said earlier that the country loses 470,000 barrels of crude oil monthly to oil theft, amounting to $700 million.

The federal government in its recent draft fiscal strategy paper for 2023 through 2025 said that oil revenue underperformed due to significant production shortfalls such as shut-ins resulting from pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft.

In a bid to curb crude theft, the Nigerian government launched an application in August to monitor the incidence. The NNPC awarded a multi-billion naira pipeline surveillance procurement to a former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, Government Ekpemupolo well known as Tompolo. (Daily Trust)

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