7th September, 2014
The Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), a socio-cultural organisation in the Niger Delta, has urged the Chief of Naval Staff to arrest unsustainable levels of oil theft in the region.
The IYC gave the task in a statement signed by its spokesman, Mr Eric Omare, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yenagoa on Sunday.
The statement said the threat issued by Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin, to chief executives of oil companies on the menace of oil theft was mere rhetorics.
NAN recalls that Jubrin had threatened that he would soon punish officers and name multinational companies who are complicit in the oil theft.
However, the council urged the Naval Chief to take drastic measures to curtail the menace of oil theft which had assumed alarming proportions.
“The IYC is not impressed by the mere threat issued by the Chief of Naval staff rather than taking drastic actions to arrest the ongoing environmental genocide in the Niger Delta called ‘oil theft’.
“The statement by the Chief of Naval Staff is nothing other than the usual rhetoric of government and security agencies to the problem of oil theft.
“We wish to state for the umpteenth time that the people involved in the business of oil scam are top politicians, serving and retired military personnel, oil company executives and their foreign collaborators.
“The Niger-Delta locals are used as artisans.
“The involvement of these high profiled persons in the business of oil theft is the reason why the government and security agencies have not been able to summon the courage and political will to bring oil theft to a stop.