Guardian ‘Amnesty Beneficiaries Are Not Oil Thieves’ SATURDAY, 20 JULY 2013 00:00 FROM ABOSEDE MUSARI (ABUJA) AND WILLIE ETIM (YENAGOA) NEWS - NATIONAL kingsley-kuku1 • Presidency Charges IOCs On Transparency • Ijaws Accuse Multinationals Of Complicity CONTRARY to claims in some quarters, the Presidency, Saturday, said former agitators in the Niger Delta, who benefit from the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), are not involved in crude oil theft in the region. In the same vein, Ijaws in the six States of the Niger Delta region, Saturday, accused multinationals of complicity in theft and misappropriation of oil revenue accruing to the Federal Government through false claims on alleged increase of theft. Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chairman of the PAP, Kingsley Kuku, in a statement signed by the Head of Media and Communications, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, said the former agitators, having been properly disarmed, demobilised and currently undergoing reintegration through various training programmes, “do not have the capacity to embark on the scale of oil theft in the region where the country currently loses about 400,000 barrels of crude per day.” Commending the security agencies in the Niger Delta, particularly the Nigerian Navy, for almost wiping out cases of illegal refineries in the region, the PAO described incidence of oil theft as a setback to the amnesty programme, which had succeeded in stabilising security in the region. Kuku stressed that he did not raise a false alarm nor was his call on the oil companies to look inward in their search for the culprits misplaced, as claimed by some of the oil workers’ union in their reaction to his comments. The statement insisted that international oil companies (IOCs) operating in the region do not show enough transparency in award of pipeline surveillance contracts, a situation, which, he said, emasculates the communities and the Niger Delta people from the process of securing such critical infrastructure in the region. “There is need for the communities and the Niger Delta people to be commensurably involved in the process of securing the oil pipelines. The IOCs also have to show more transparency in the process of awarding such contracts. “I’m not referring to the NNPC pipeline surveillance contracts, which have been suspended. We know those behind these contracts before they were suspended. But can we say the same for the contracts awarded by the oil firms to secure their pipelines? Who are the organisations and individuals handling such contracts,?” the statement queried. The Presidential Adviser reasoned that Shell declared last year that it spent one billion dollars ($1bn) on securing its facilities globally; 40 per cent (about $400million) of which it claimed was spent in the Niger Delta. “Where was such a huge amount spent when the company had greatly divested its investment onshore and offshore? When converted to Naira, $400million is more than the annual budget for the Amnesty Programme. So, who are the companies or individuals handling their security contracts? These are questions the oil workers should ask their employers rather than disingenuously pointing accusing fingers at the amnesty beneficiaries. “What is happening is a conspiracy between international buyers of the crude and some highly-placed individuals, in tandem with those with the technical know-how in the oil firms to siphon crude through ruptured pipelines and large vessels. When you consider that the theft is also carried out in the deep sea oil locations, you will agree that the ordinary Niger Delta people do not have the sophistication and technical expertise to rupture those pipelines nor the high-grade vessels to cart away the stolen crude.” Kuku said the Federal Government, working with some of the states in the region, has commenced security, legal and other steps to address this ugly trend. He expressed the hope that, very soon, the hole through which economic saboteurs are bleeding the Nigerian economy daily will be plugged. He maintained that, with the steps taken so far, President Goodluck Jonathan has shown that he has the capacity and will address the issues affecting the Niger Delta. “What I said in Washington about Mr. President remains a fact as he has shown, time and again, that he is the best person to address the Niger Delta situation being someone from the region. I have no apologies for this position because I’m convinced that he means well for the region and our nation. He only needs the support of well-meaning Nigerians. Under the aegis of the Ijaw Peoples Development Initiatives (IPDI), youths in the Niger Delta, led by Comrade Ozobo Austin, claimed that oil multinationals are not sincere in submissions made on the actual degree of loss in volume of crude oil and revenue. “The Oil multinational companies are over- blowing the whole situation to make more profits and pay lesser tax and returns to the Federal Government. The Federal Government should launch probe into the internally-computed fraudulent reports of the oil multinational companies to ascertain the actual loss of oil revenue in the country,” Ozobo said. “It is also true that the oil companies are running illegal wells and under-estimated numbers of barrel produced per-day, which the government did not know about. It is sad and barbaric. The attitude of the oil companies are worse than that of the known oil thieves we are shouting about; only few of the oil wells and barrels produced per day are reported. I tell you that many oil wells and barrels produced are not known to the Federal Government,” he said. The IPDI alleged that oil multinationals in the region have been discovered to drill illegal wells, only to turn around and accuse oil thieves of being responsible for poor crude oil production in the country.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 09:18:50 +0000
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