Senator Ned Nwoko, (PDP-Delta) has said nobody should be seen as above the law when dealing with issues of oil theft and spillage in the country.
Nwoko, who is the Senate Vice Chairman on Environment, and member representing Delta North Senatorial District, said this on Sunday, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Abuja.
He said that he found it unacceptable when people say that there were cabals who were untouchable and were involved in oil theft and spillage.
He noted that nobody was above the law of the country, adding that whether as a former Military General, or current General or former Head of State, if indicted in oil theft and spillage, the senate would name and expose that person.
“Yes, but what I don’t accept, and I find very unacceptable is when people tell me, oh, there’s a cabal. They are untouchable.
“Nobody is above the law. Whether you are a former Military General, current General or former Head of State, if you are involved in this, you will be exposed. You will be named, because nobody is a sacred cow,” he said.
He said that these category of people causing oil spillage known as “the big boys, and untouchables” were either vessel owners or those who chatter vessels or badges to steal crude in large quantities.
According to him, they are more difficult to deal with because they have the capacity to connive with those who ought to have stopped them.
“It’s not as if they operate at night or they are from the air. No, as I said earlier, they get their vessels to load at platforms that are protected.
“Of course, we know that sometimes among this group of people are those also very sophisticated in the act
“They can tap into crude pipelines, linking them to hundreds of miles into the sea and load from there. But again, it’s all about technology.
“Technology is there to know this. You should be able to know immediately where this is happening.
“But that this can happen for one year, three years and you don’t know, that means that we are negligent, we are reckless, we are fraudulent. We are complicit in every sense of the word.”
The lawmaker said that there were however, solutions adding that such solutions were that there might be some Nigerians who were diligent, honest, and committed to ensuring that the nation’s revenue generation was maximized from these sources.
He noted that Nigerians were known to work, so those who were capable of being accountable, diligent, and honest, should be supported, promoted and rewarded.
According to him, we have them in Nigeria. It’s not everybody is a bad egg, so those ones should be identified and rewarded accordingly and the bad eggs should be weeded off from the system.
“So the the motion that I moved about three weeks ago on investigating the crude oil theft in Nigeria, encompasses all this.
“We just started the meeting of the committees involved a few days ago. We invited some of the oil producing companies as well as the security companies that are involved in joint task forces.
“By the time we are done speaking with them, we will visit these locations to know exactly what’s happening and then we proffer solutions,” he said.
Nwoko said the other category of people causing oil spillage through theft were largely Nigerians desperate to survive.
According to him, they are the ones who are trying to distill crude into some finished products. This category of people, should be managed in line with my motion on oil theft.
“My proposal is that we should bring them into the formal economy since they have the technology or the crude technology to refine, and what they refine is usable.
“We can invest in them, we can organise them and then make them more useful and accountable.
“We can give them the crude that they want, and the means to refine them to stop them from breaking the pipelines. We just need to work with them.”
He stressed that there were Nigerians who want to be engaged in some activities that would create jobs and generate income and revenue for the government.
“So why destroy what they’re doing? You want them to become armed robbers? Why kill them They are Nigerians.”
“So we must identify them, identify who they are and negotiate with them, and then get them to become part of the formal economy.
“That is more like saying bringing them into the mainstream, investing in them and improving their technology.
“So we can organise them because largely they also pollute the environment endlessly.
“We cannot supervise them if you are not willing to bring them into your fold. We don’t need to criminalise everybody, especially this category of people that can help to create jobs, help to generate revenue,” he added. (NAN)