TIME TO UNMASK OIL THIEVES Government should summon the courage to deal with this burgeoning economic crime Barely two months after his company was awarded a security con
Barely two months after his company was awarded a security contract to check oil theft in the Niger Delta region, Government Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo has reportedly discovered about 58 illegal points in Delta and Bayelsa States where crude oil is so brazenly stolen. Among them is a four-kilometre oil pipeline used by bunkerers on the trans-Forcados pipeline in Delta State. “We are doing the work together with the security agents, NNPCL and others,” said Tompolo, an ex-militant leader, recently.
The volume of oil theft is now not only staggering but also unprecedented. The Independent Petroleum Producers Group aptly described it as an “existential threat”. An audit on the operations of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector commissioned by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative disclosed that the nation lost over 136 million barrels of crude oil estimated at $10.9 billion through sabotage between 2009 and 2011. But authorities in the sector must go beyond mere lamentations.