Ex-militants accuse multinationals of oil theft‎

… Want Buhari  to probe 13% derivation funds

By PRINCE MONDAY WHISKEY,Regional Editor, South South

INSPITE of the heavy militarization of the Niger Delta creeks in the name of protecting the nation’s petrol-dollar oil installations, several impeccable sources have confided to National Daily that crude oil theft and oil bunkering is on the increase thus resulting in monumental financial lost running into billions of dollars while the high level cartel smile to the bank.
In an exclusive interview in one of its creek location in Bayelsa State during the week, a vocal ex-militant war lord, Commander Johnson Biboye of the dreaded Iduwini Volunteer Force (IVF) said the non involvement of the critical stake holders in the nation’s resources distribution arrangement should be blamed squarely for the daily increase in the crude oil theft and bunkering in the Niger Delta States of Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom and Cross Rivers State.
Commander Biboye who questioned rhetorically said “how do you share my God given inheritance in my presence without allocating any one to me and you expect to have peace, the Nigeria nation and its leaders must urgently revisit the issue of resource ownership and properly integrate all critically stakeholders in the sharing/management of our petrol-dollar resources. This certainly will bring about greater commitment and patriotism on the part of the stakeholders which will in turn result in community policing of oil and gas installations in each of the aforementioned States.”
Speaking further, he said “it is only the involvement of the locals that can put a stop to these heavy economic sabotage being perpetuated by oil multinational in collaboration with highly placed security personnel and some disgruntled individuals.”
He also noted that some of our local workers in the oil multinational know virtually all the strategies employed by the companies to dupe the nation and letter reports same as crude oil stolen or crude oil bunkered.
Commander Biboye said the issue of oil theft and crude oil bunkering is multi dimensional as even our elected governors have not helped in this matter at all, adding that, “each time, our people advocate for better management of the fund that comes to our people in the name of 13% derivation fund, these governors who have out-rightly mismanaged the over ten (10) trillion naira already allocated in the past 15 years will sponsor their puppets and their criminal cohorts to issue statements castigating the locals for daring to demand accountability”.
In particular, he recalled the recent statement credited to the former Federal Minister of Finance and the coordinating Minister of the Economic, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala outlining the hundreds of billions of naira allocated to the Niger Delta states in 2013 alone thereby v indicating their consistent call for proper probe of the 13% derivation fund.
According to him, this has indeed opened a new page in the clamour for the redirection of the 13% derivation fund management, demanding equivocally that the money should urgently be removed from the hands of these elected governors as they have failed to show enough evidence for the huge allocations.
Speaking in the same vein, Comrade Jude Akpore, National President of the elite Urhobo Youth Assembly (UYA) said the growing allegations and counter allegations about the volume of crude oil been stolen from the nation’s trunk lines which oil ministry sources placed at over N3billion daily, should be blamed squarely on the failure of the presidential amnesty operators to work more with real ex-militants in the Niger Delta Region.
According to Comrade Akpore, apart from the desire of the presidential amnesty operators to see the programme as a personal business outfit that must be run only according to their dictates. Another issue that has greatly influenced this monster now called crude oil theft is the fact that our security agencies may have compromised on the internal security along the Nigerian waterways as it is not possible for anybody to move the alleged large quantities of oil stolen daily without any compromise.
In his words, “as someone who is deeply involved with the day to day situation in Niger-Delta I have always disagree that such volume of oil can be stolen and yet our security personnel cannot give us any tangible explanation to those behind it and where such products are taking to, things don’t happen this way.
If you look properly, you will see that the immediate past Presidential Amnesty Committee actually sideline the real agitators/fighters and replace them with their cohorts and relations hence some of them can no longer come home and are claiming to be ex-militant leaders and leaders of several Riverside communities who now operate from the comfort of palatial offices in the cities while the real agitators/fighters are suffering with their boys in the creeks.
Speaking further, he said, the Government of General Mohammadu Buhari will fail woefully if it refuses  to critically look at financial books of the Presidential Amnesty Programme of the last administration as the monumental fraud and outright disregard to the norms of the programmes have today resulted in the daily or weekly protest by geniune ex-militant leaders and their followers who were deliberately schemed out of the programme by the Honourable Kingsley Kuku led amnesty programme.
According to him, if what has been expended on the amnesty programme is indeed judiciously spent then, the issue of oil theft and sea piracy would have been reduced to the lowest ebb.
Speaking in the same vain, Comrade Austin Ozobo, National President, Ijaw People Development Initiatives (IPDI) said, the oil companies claim of loosing million of barrels daily may not be too correct as the issue is only a decoy by the oil companies to make more profits, pay lesser tax and make lesser financial return to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
As an advocate in the Niger Delta, I can say clearly that the oil companies are the major oil theft we are talking about if any, my only pain is that it is a big surprise that at this point in time, our government is yet to develop a modern technology to monitor volume of crude oil production and checkmate any oil theft happenings in the oil industry without relying on the alien ideology.
As far as I am concerned, all the oil multinationals are duping the Federal Government and hiding under the guise of oil theft, it is not technologically tenable for such volume of oil to be moved from any trunk line and the companies will pretend not to know those involve and where such oils are taken to.
National Daily investigation exclusively revealed that in the past five years over forty tank farms have suddenly been established in the country with booming daily patronages without commensurate monitoring strategy to know source of their supply and quantities supplied to such tank farm for onward sales to the buying public.
Meanwhile, recent agency report posted on oilprice.com has placed Nigeria as the country with the highest volume of crude oil theft globally, the report said with an estimated 400 thousand barrels of crude oil stolen daily which amount to over $1.7 billion a month and $20.4 billion annually, Nigeria top the list of five countries bedeviled by oil theft.
The amount lost by Nigeria annually is said to represent about 7.7% of the nation’s GDP which is more than what the country spent annually on education and health care put together the report said.
According to the report, the situation is harsh and is showing much of the inability of the Nigeria government and the oil multinational conglomerates operating in Niger Delta to do anything tangible about the cartel.
The report which quoted the Head of the Anglo-Dutch oil multinational, The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) Philip Mshelbila as saying that the cartel involved in the oil theft is sophisticatedly organized by people who have been working for years to steal oil from official pipelines.
Also, the global financial initiative point out that stolen Nigeria crude is transported on internationally registered vessels, sold to Internationally recognized buyers, processed by internationally recognized refineries and payment made through internationally recognized bank accounts.
Just in July 2015. The Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC) Stated that the country lost crude oil and other petroleum products valued at over N59 billion resulting from pipeline vandalism in 2014.
The NNPC also added that within the period under review 335.690 metric tones of petroleum products valued at over N44billion was also allegedly lost.
Only recently, a group of oil theft reportedly admitted to a profit of nearly $7,000 a day from their criminal activities yet, no workable strategy have been deploy to put a stop to this criminal cartel.
It will be recall that only recently the General Mohammadu Buhari led federal government banned one hundred and thirteen oil tankers/vessels from lifting oil in Nigeria, a move seen by oil industry operators as a welcome development and timely.
An impeccable oil industry operator added that the banned oil tankers/vessels knows fully well that if the Nigeria security agencies do their job rightly, they should not only be banned but should be prosecuted outrightly for their deep involvement in overloading and outright crude oil theft.
The source explained that most crude oil reported stolen are actually overloaded(refer to in the oil industry as excess loading) into tankers with the active connivance management staff of multinational oil firms and the security topshots as crude oil tankers with 3,000,000 barrels capacity are sometime overloaded up to 4,000,000 barrels while the excess of 1,000,000 barrels is shared by the cartel membership.