SINCE last week when news broke about the arrest and subsequent destruction of an 800,000-litre vessel used for oil-theft in the Niger Delta waters, there has been uneasy calm in the polity. According to news reports, a security outfit owned by ex-Niger Delta militant, Government Ekpemupolo (a.k.a Tompolo), Tantita Security Services Ltd, had intercepted the said vessel, the MT Tura II, owned by a Nigerian registered company, Holab Maritime Services Limited, and promptly handed it over to the authorities. However, as Nigerians excited about the development waited for updates on the incident, including the plans being made to prosecute the culprits and curb the activities of oil thieves, news filtered through that the vessel and its contents had been destroyed.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) announced that it had destroyed the vessel, which it said was heading to Cameroon. According to its spokesman, Garba Muhammad, the vessel was intercepted with the captain and crew members on board. The crude oil cargo onboard, he said, was illegally sourced from an offshore well jacket in Ondo State, and further investigations revealed that the vessel had been operating in stealth mode for the last 12 years. There was no valid documentation for the vessel or the crude oil cargo onboard at the time of the arrest, and further investigation into the activities of the vessel at the NNPC Limited command and control centre also revealed that the vessel had been operating in stealth mode for the last 12 years, with the last reported location of the Vessel being Tin Can Port in July 2011. The destruction of the vessel, he added, was meant to serve as a deterrent to oil thieves. Muhammad said: “The illegal trade of stolen crude oil not only inflicts significant economic losses on Nigeria and legitimate stakeholders in the oil industry, but also perpetuates a cycle of corruption, environmental devastation, and social instability. NNPC Ltd assures Nigerians that it will sustain the momentum in the war against crude oil theft until it is brought to a halt.”
Regardless of the concerns that Nigerians may have about the pattern of events following the interception of the MT Tura II, it is at least significant that a private security outfit proved faithful to its mandate in the Niger Delta zone. Time and again, Tantita Security Services Ltd has intercepted oil-theft vessels and handed them over to the authorities. This is significant, especially against the backdrop of allegations that some military and police officers are involved in the widespread oil theft in the zone, an issue about which the military establishment has always reacted with incredulity but which has nonetheless remained persistent. In the present instance, sadly, there is hardly any cause for cheer even though economic saboteurs were arrested and their illegal activities in the Niger Delta halted, hopefully for good. This is because with the rather precipitate action of the NNPCL, Nigerians have been left with the impression that the government is hiding something. Pray, why did the NNPCL and the military authorities feel the need to destroy the vessel on the high sea without a court judgment to that effect? Why act as the accuser and the judge in the matter? And why create environmental pollution? Why not forfeit such vessels to the government when they are intercepted? If, as the NNPCL claimed, the vessel had been involved in oil theft for long, why was it not impounded before now?
The development obviously raises fundamental questions about the propriety or otherwise of the government’s action in summarily destroying ships. The impression has been given that the vessel was burnt together with the stolen petroleum when it ought to be clear that the oil belongs to the country and the ship could still have been impounded. What purpose is to be served with the summary destruction of ships used for oil theft, with the country also losing its oil after seizing the thieves and the vessel? If the vessel was burnt with the oil, then the question arises whether the oil could not be returned to the care of Nigeria, and whether the country preferred losing it to recovering it. By the way, since the owners of the ship are known to the government given that it is registered to do business in Nigeria, what efforts have been made to get them to pay for their acts of economic sabotage? Who enabled the operation of the said ship “in stealth mode” for 12 years as it carried out illegal activities? And what does the failure to arrest that vessel in over a decade say about those constitutionally mandated to rein in oil theft?
We believe that the government has to provide public explanations for what it has done and why it thought that was the best in the circumstances. Until such a convincing explanation is provided, we shall continue to have serious doubts about the grisly episode.
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