TheCable

Asari Dokubo, a Niger Delta activist, says the military — particularly the army and navy — knows those behind the oil theft in the Niger Delta region.

Speaking with reporters after meeting with President Bola Tinubu on Friday, Dokubo alleged that the army and navy intimidate personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) who are supposed to protect oil pipelines.

The activist described the theft of oil as a “crime against humanity” because the livelihoods of the people in the region have been destroyed.

“The army and the navy intimidate the civil defence who are by status, the people who are supposed to guard these pipelines,” he said.

“They receive a lot of money from NNPC, PCL and the IOCs and just across the corner, you will see a houseboat a few meters from the houseboat, you will see an oil bunkering refinery or tapping directly from oil well ends. It is very pathetic now.

“What is happening in the Niger Delta in the past eight years was unprecedented in the history of oil production anywhere in the world.

“The vandals do not only attack the pipelines, they have migrated from the pipeline and have gone directly to the oil wealth heads and they take directly from the oil wealth heads. They set up haphazard facilities they call local refineries and artisanal refineries, this is a crime against humanity because the livelihood of the people is being totally destroyed.”

Dokubo said Tinubu had promised to take decisive actions to put a stop to the oil theft.

“So I have volunteered to help, to assist and to do the things that are necessary to put a stop to this evil that is being perpetrated against the people of the Niger Delta, the oil community and the whole of Nigerians,” he said.

Onyema Nwachukwu, spokesperson of the army, was not immediately available for comment when contacted by TheCable. Calls and messages to his mobile phone were neither answered nor replied to at the time of this report.