Crude Oil Theft: The Ominous Loud Sound of Silence

Not too long ago, Tompolo security outfit, Tantita Security Services had a brush with the Navy and alleged that the military was involved in crude theft. Tantita has a contract with NNPCL to protect Nigeria’s oil and gas assets.

Former Niger-Delta militant, Asari Dokubo, also alleged that the Military was involved in crude oil theft.

Now, after a sting under-cover investigation, Fisayo Soyombo, award winning investigative journalist has also alleged that the Military is involved in illegal bunkering and crude oil theft.

In all these allegations, neither the Government nor the military has come forward to categorically dispute these allegations.

Many Nigerians have always suspected that top echelons of government and the security agencies are, somehow, involved in crude oil theft. To berth a vessel in the creeks, successfully load it with crude, and sail it across international waters, is not akara and beans. Sailing across the Togo Triangle with stolen crude from Nigeria is certainly not a job for small fries.

Wikipedia describes the Togo Triangle as “an offshore market for stolen oil off the coast of Nigeria and Togo near the Niger Delta”. The Triangle has been compared to an “open-air” drug market for trade in illegal crude oil, noted for the presence of pirates.

In 2009, the US Government approached Nigeria to allow it set up a military base to be known as Africom in the Bight of Benin to police what they termed “unpoliced waters”. The US claimed that the objective was to protect America’s strategic interests in Africa and also assist African countries with military training and conflict prevention.

President Yar Adua rejected the US request (rightly so in my view at the time, though today I am wondering). Eventually Africom was moved to Germany. Today, it is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Department of Defense, headquartered at Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany.

But I digress. Now, in the light of of all these allegations, the question I am asking is: why is the Federal Government silent over allegations of collusion of top government and military officials in crude theft? Not even an investigation has been carried out by the government. Is there something between the government and the military, as far as crude oil is concerned, that we do not know?

I recall that in 2005, the Nigerian navy demoted and dismissed two admirals for their role in the disappearance of a Russian tanker which had been arrested for transporting 11,000 tonnes of stolen Nigerian crude oil. Since then, there has been, to date, no record of military officers indicted and sanctioned for their involvement in crude oil theft despite allegations upon allegations.