The Ibenanaowei of Ekpetiama Kingdom in Bayelsa State, King Bubaraye Dakolo, has chided the Federal Government for failing to prosecute and jail the real perpetrators of oil theft in the Niger Delta region, despite the trillions of dollars worth of crude stolen from the country.
Dakolo, who is also the Chairman of the Traditional Rulers Council of Bayelsa State, disclosed this on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief.
He lamented that the government had failed to define who an oil thief is, despite the persistence of oil theft for decades.
He said, “What I do know is that the Federal Government does not know who an oil thief is because it is surprising that for this long, not one oil thief has been arrested, prosecuted, and jailed. If you go to the Kirikiri correctional centre, there is not one oil thief on the list of persons ever jailed.
“If you go to Kogi prison, there is not one oil thief on that list; if you go to Kuje prison as well, there is no oil thief listed among those who have ever been jailed.”
Dakolo said that rather than identifying and prosecuting the real thieves, the government goes after poor residents in the region.
“And from the record we have today, there are about 200,000 barrels of crude oil stolen every day, and this amount of crude oil cannot be put in your mouth or pocket. So, ocean-going vessels are used in stealing them, but the Nigerian state is chasing victims of oil thievery — those who are not able to go to school, those who are not able to buy trousers for themselves, those who cannot afford three square meals.
“The oil thief definitely is not the youth in the Niger Delta who are painted as oil thieves. The oil thieves, usually, will have properties on Banana Island and in choice places in Abuja. The oil thief will have properties in London and other parts of Europe and America.
“The oil thief will have a yacht, the oil thief will have glossy skin. The oil thief wouldn’t want to come to the creeks of the Niger Delta even for a day. If he has to come, he will come with a military escort, police escort, doctors, nurses, and all.
“In case he is bitten by a mosquito, they would have to cure him because he loves his life dearly, he wouldn’t want to take the risk of coming to be in the swamps of the Niger Delta,” he said.
On the revenue lost to crude oil theft and the lack of accountability by the government, the monarch said, “The Federal Government not properly defining who an oil thief is has set us on this trajectory. As we speak now, about $3 trillion worth of oil has been sold or has been extracted over the years, and then most of it outright stolen, never brought to Nigeria.
“Of course, you must have heard of the ‘Abacha loot,’ which even though the man has died for about 27 or so years, the money keeps coming every year; I believe we are going to receive some this year. So, that is about $1 trillion.
“Then the $2 trillion that has come into Nigeria over the years for use in managing governance and building up the cities, except the cities in my place, are also part of it. Those are the ones eaten by cows, stolen by fish, eaten by rats, swallowed by snakes, and so on.
“So, there is no proper accountability. The mismanagement of oil and gas resources is the story. Nobody wants to frontally say, ‘This is an oil thief or this is the definition of an oil thief.”
In February, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, said that security agencies and oil industry operators were working towards achieving Nigeria’s target of 2.5 million barrels of crude oil per day, as set by President Bola Tinubu.
The CDS had issued a three-month ultimatum to curb oil theft in the Niger Delta and increase production.
However, output had remained at 1.4 million barrels per day.
