Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has lamented the lack of commitment or political will of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s government to expose, arrest, prosecute and jail military officers implicated in the widespread thefts of Nigeria's crude oil resources daily.

HURIWA specifically wondered why President Tinubu failed to take any concrete, realistic, transparent and open actions against the indicted but serving military officers allegedly lining their pockets with filthy lucre made from the diversion of Nigeria's crude oil to the black market globally even after a huge body of evidence was made available personally to the President by both Chief Government Ekpemupolo (a.k.a Tompolo) including a former Niger Delta militant warlord, Alhaji Asari Dokubo.

HURIWA recalled that recently, the National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, said the country was losing 400,000 barrels of crude oil daily to local and international thieves, despite efforts to end the menace.

Ribadu confirmed this when he led a Presidential Delegation to inspect oil and gas facilities at Owaza in Abia and Odogwa in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers penultimate Saturday. He said the activities of oil thieves and pipeline vandals had impacted negatively on the nation’s economy and were partly responsible for the rising cost of living in the country.

Ribadu said: “It’s unfortunate that few individuals would steal our common resources, and in the process, cause unbelievable loss to the nation, communities and the people.

“Nigeria has the capacity to produce 2 million barrels of crude daily, but we are currently producing less than 1.6 million barrels due to theft and vandalism of pipelines. So, we are talking about 400,000 barrels of crude oil going to waste with few criminals and economic saboteurs not even getting much out of it. The value of 400,000 barrels of oil today is about 4 million dollars, and every day, we lose this amount because of this irresponsible behaviour. If you multiply 4 million dollars by 365 days (one year), you will see that it is a lot of money running into billions of dollars.”

HURIWA, in a by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, lamented that the current administration was more interested in media dramatisation about the critical issue of massive diversions of crude oil resource especially by a powerful cartel which allegedly included serving Naval and Army Generals as disclosed by two key figures involved with matters associated with the Niger Delta, including Tompolo, whose company hired by the Federal Government to catch crude oil thieves, had severally indicted the Nigerian Navy of involvement but without any actions been taken by the government to stem the tide.

HURIWA said there was high probability that certain powerful forces within the Nigerian Navy know one or two things about these massive crude oil thefts so much so that it was now getting involved in shameful public spat with Tompolo-led effort to rid the nation's waterways of crude oil thefts.

It argued, in the first place, that the widely acclaimed contract handed over to Tompolo was clearly a vote of no confidence in the Navy which should have led to a clean sweep of all the officers implicated in the alleged crime. But sadly, both the immediate past administration and the succeeding Tinubu government, showed and is showing disappointing attitudes towards concretely combating the increasing waves of crude oil thefts in the Country.

HURIWA condemned the public show of shame by the Navy which has allegedly resorted to blackmailing the staff of Tompolo’s Security firm who initially exposed their indicted officers of involvement in the massive economic sabotage of Nigeria through active collaboration with the mafia implicated in the continuous thefts of Nigeria’s crude oil resource.

The association has therefore called on President Tinubu to set up an independent judicial inquisition on the allegations of involvement of military officers in crude oil thefts and for the panel to uncover, name, shame, prosecute and jail these economic saboteurs for their crimes against Nigerian people.

HURIWA also called on the federal government to take steps to investigate the allegations made by Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited (TSL) against Nigerian Navy when it cleared the air over the incident at the Lekki area of Lagos involving its operatives and some Nigerian Navy personnel on August 29.

HURIWA recalled that the firm explained that its personnel on the trail of the suspected oil thieves were instead arrested and detained for carrying out their lawful duty.

“The continued detention by the Nigerian Navy of these five brave, selfless Nigerians who risked their lives on the high seas to protect our commonwealth is a disservice to our nation,” TSL said in a statement on Saturday.

The Nigerian Navy had claimed that the Tantita patrol team was arrested following the realisation that the “four individuals are part of a movement of a large wooden boat laden with 11 x 1000L Geepee tanks with product suspected to be stolen crude oil.”

But narrating what transpired, TSL, which has been working to curb the large-scale theft of crude oil in the country, explained that its eight-man patrol team operating in Ondo State received credible intelligence on Monday that a motorised wooden boat was illegally loading crude oil from an Offshore Oil Well Jacket operated by Cavendish Nigeria Limited, where the MT TURA II was caught stealing crude oil a few months ago.

“HURIWA is therefore urging the President to demonstrate courage and statesmanship by dealing with military officers believed to be notorious conspirators with mafia members of crude oil thefts. Government must either dismantle this crude oil mafia diverting the nation’s crude oil resources or they will destroy Nigeria,” the statement concluded.

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