The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa, and other security and intelligence chiefs say they have devised strategies to combat crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta.
Musa disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja at a press briefing shortly after a closed door meeting held by some security chiefs.
The meeting also had in attendance the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari.
Musa said it was high time that the oil theft in the South-South was stopped, promising that the security agencies would henceforth clear the region of any acts of vandalism and criminality.
He said President Bola Tinubu had mandated them to secure the entire South-South and to enable NNPC and other International Oil Companies (IOCs) carry out their task to ensure improved production.
Musa said: “We know that Nigeria relies so much on what we can produce and so we want to use this medium to appeal to the communities to have an understanding.
“Yes, we know trust has been a problem, but they can trust us, they can trust the government that we want to do things differently.
“Everyone will be carried along, everyone has a role to play; it is not only for the security agencies alone.
“We need the communities to understand that pipeline vandalism and all the hazards being caused is also affecting them directly and we need to stop that,” he stressed.
Musa added that there was the need for agencies to work together, saying the meeting was to enable them harmonise their strategies based on the president’s mandate.
He said that all their operations would be harmonised under the joint task force with the land components of all the other agencies.
“I can assure you within the next shortest possible time, you will see results coming in.”
Also speaking, the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, said the services and agencies agreed at the security meeting that all must come together to solve the problems.
Egbetokun said there was the need to take every necessary step to address all the issues, assuring that results would be visible in the days ahead.
On his part, the NNPCL boss said the engagement was in response to the directives of the President to the defence chiefs to take control of the crisis in the Niger Delta operational area.
Kyari said that oil theft and bunkering had become a major national issue, adding that the President had directed the chief of defence staff to ensure that they contained it within a shortest frame of time.
He said the move was aimed at restoring national production to the level expected by the country.
“To this end, we need the coordination and cooperation of the armed forces, the police, the DIA, the Department of Military Intelligence.
“We need the coordination of everyone in Nigerian Police, the DSS, and everyone is on board to see that this activity goes forward so that we can restore production.
“Not only that, it is the survival of our country that is at stake today, but without restoring oil and gas production, we cannot have that stability that we all desire.
“It is impossible to do this without having settlement around the crisis that we have in our operational area.
“We have already seen progress and we have seen substantial value that is being created by the coordination and cooperation and we are very convinced that the solution is in sight,” he said. (NAN)