Everyday for the thief, one day for the owner’. This time-tested cliche is true of the vessel, MT Tura II (IMO number: 6620462), arrested on July 7 by Messrs. Tantita Security Services Nigeria Ltd, with about 150,000 metric tonnes of stolen crude oil valued at about $86.8million. Tantita Security Ltd., a private security contractor engaged by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is owned by former militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo. The vessel, said to be owned by a Nigerian registered company, Holab Maritime Services Limited, with registration number RC813311, was heading to Cameroun with the cargo when it was intercepted. It was alleged to have been in the illicit business for about 12 years.

Garba Muhammad, NNPCL’s spokesman, said in a statement that the vessel was apprehended at an offshore location at latitude 5.8197194477543235° and longitude 4.789002723991871°, with the captain and 12 other crew members on board. Neither the vessel nor its content, said to have been sourced illegally from a well jacket offshore Ondo State, had any valid documentation.

It is an open secret that some highly influential Nigerians as well as international oil companies (IOCs) are into this illicit business of crude oil theft in the Niger Delta region. Given the scope of their operations, it is not a job for minions. This much was confirmed by a retired deputy comptroller of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and vice-chairman, Senate Committee on Customs and Excise in the 9th Senate, Francis Fadahunsi. ”Some international oil companies and highly influential Nigerians are behind the crude oil theft in Nigeria. It did not start today; the practice has been on for a long time.

“Unfortunately, the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited is doing nothing spectacular to stop the theft”, Fadahunsi said. He added that “Each of the affected IOCs has separate channels with which they are siphoning crude to waiting vessels on the high seas with the active connivance of the military and security operatives saddled with the responsibility of protecting the nation’s oil assets.”

The arrest of MT Tura 11 should signal a radical departure from the past where government officials only made pious commitment to rid the country of the menace of crude theft.

“The illegal trade of stolen crude oil not only inflicts significant economic losses on Nigeria and legitimate stakeholders in the oil industry, but also perpetuates a cycle of corruption, environmental devastation, and social instability”, the statement by Muhammad said.

Former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva said last year that Nigeria loses about 400,000 barrels of crude oil daily to oil thieves. The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) early this year disclosed that the country lost 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at N16.25trn ($46.16bn) between 2009 and 2020 to oil theft. This is huge.

One would have thought that these economic losses would have prodded successive governments to go after these rogue elements with all the might they could muster, to put a stop to their illegal activities. But no. Rather, government officials only wringed their hands in frustration as if they did not know what to do to stem the tide.

We commend Tantita Security Ltd for a sting operation clinically executed. The company’s executive director, technical and operations, Captain Warredi Enisuoh, said, they had been monitoring the activities of the vessel for long before apprehending it, sequel to the credible intelligence they got about its activities. He added that the vessel had once been arrested for the same crime but disappeared in mysterious circumstances. “We are here with the same vessel committing the same atrocity”. Apparently the greed of the criminals involved in this business ended up being their nemesis. Imagine just one illicit business that would have fetched the perpetrators a whopping $86.8m! Imagine the number of times they would have operated, either without being caught or being caught but later left off the hook, and how much they must have made from their past operations? But that is usually the way of criminals, particularly those whose activities fetch them huge pecuniary gains. They are like Oliver Twist: they always crave for more.

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