The National Publicity Secretary of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr. Isuwa Dogo has said that security agencies in Niger Delta are in the region to protect oil thieves and not to prevent oil theft.
Dogo in an interview on Monday noted that the actions of the military have confirmed that they collude with oil criminals to perpetrate criminality.
It will be recalled that investigative journalist and founder of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), Fisayo Soyombo had revealed how the military collude with oil thieves, stressing that all the information he shared with army personnel during his interrogation were disclosed to suspected oil thieves, compromising his safety.
Soyombo while speaking on Arise TV on Saturday said he was arrested while conducting an undercover investigation, and he had been investigating the complex security network that protects illegal oil bunkers.
Dogo corroborated Soyombo and said, “You’ll wonder why the military destroys the vehicles they claim are used for oil theft. Shouldn’t that be used as evidence? Again, tell me any arrest the Navy or the military has shown to the public. They only use that to make noise so that people will believe they’re working.
“I’ve known this for over 15 years now. In 1993 when I did my masters in international and Diplomacy. I did my project on “Deterioration of Environment: The Role of International Oil Multinationals in Nigeria”. I went to virtually every oil producing community in Nigeria. The issue of oil theft is absolute collaboration between the criminals, the Navy, the Army, the Air Force and all the security agencies.
“What Soyombo said is the truth. It’s not only locally, but even internationally. The oil thieves sell the oil internationally. Will the receiving countries say they’re not aware the oil is stolen?”
Speaking on why the government has failed to check the excesses, he said, “The government officials who talk about it are fully aware of what is taking place, cannot talk about it because they’re beneficiaries. Some government officials are more than billionaires because they’re benefitting from oil bunkering.
On the way forward, he said, “There can be an end if we have leaders who are ready to do what is right. Those who do the job make returns to top military officers. So, whether you talk of Police, Army, Air Force, Navy or any form of security agency, they make returns to top officials in Abuja. They’re aware of what is taking place, but don’t have the moral courage to say no to what is wrong because they’re benefitting from it.
“They’re there to give protection to oil theft. The security agencies are there to protect oil theft not to prevent oil theft.
“It’s the security that escorts the vessels into the high sea. The international oil companies know it, the countries know it, both locally and internationally they know it but because they’re all benefiting from it the reason they don’t say anything. Have they come out to give names of the people doing the stealing? Have they come out to say, this is the vessel they caught and these are the people doing the bunkering? They’re there to protect the oil theft, not to prevent it so the more they’re posted there, the more the oil theft.”
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