Governors seek special courts for oil thieves, bunkerers

An ad-hoc committee on crude oil theft prevention and control set up by the National Economic Council has called for the establishment of special courts to prosecute suspects as one of the ways out of the menace.

The recommendation formed part of the committee’s report presented to a meeting of the council presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday.
Osinbajo chairs the council which has all state governors, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Minister of Budget and National Planning among others as members.

Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello; Bayelsa State Deputy Governor, John Jonah; Enugu State Deputy Governor, Cecilia Ezeilo; and the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, briefed State House correspondents at the end of the meeting.

The Bayelsa State Deputy Governor said he reported to the Council that the committee set up in 2013 consulted widely with relevant stakeholders including the Armed Forces, the Joint Task Force, oil companies, oil producing states and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps among others in preparing the report.

He said the committee identified causes of oil theft to include inadequate operational patrol vessels to conduct patrol of entire pipeline network; massive unemployment among youths; and non-availability of petroleum products in the Niger Delta.

He added that the committee came up with three key recommendations.

He said, “Among the key recommendations of the committee is the rocurement and deployment of appropriate technology in surveillance and combat vehicles/boats in difficult terrain which we believe would drastically reduce incidents of oil thefts and illegal bunkering and this would ensure full benefits of uninterrupted supply.

“We also recommended that the Federal Government should set up special courts for speedy prosecution of oil bunkerers and oil theft suspects.

“We also made a case for the engagement of traditional rulers to sensitise their communities on the criminal and environmental dangers of oil theft.”

Jonah said the committee also made a case for an increase in the refining capacity of the domestic refineries through relocation/co-locating smaller cost-efficient refineries within time frame of 12 to 24 months.

He said government was also asked to focus on restoring upstream production by positively engaging host communities to put the current militancy to an end and focus on improving government funding in the upstream sector where funding has been less than 30%.