A Niger Delta Group Under aegis of the Conference of Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities (CONDEN), has called on the President of the federal republic of Nigeria to overhaul the security architecture of the country in view of the revelation of theft and corruption going on within the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
The group, attributed the ugly situation to the involvement of some personnel of security agencies which it alleged, connive with those it described as saboteurs to loot the nation’s resources.
The NNPCL CEO Mele Kyari, while addressing the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), had revealed last week that there was massive theft of crude oil in the country and also exposed the incompetence of the nation’s security agencies.
Kyari, who revealed that the country currently produces 1.49 million barrels per day, described the development as worrisome.
The group’s National President, Dr Frank Timi, and Secretary, High Chief Godwin Ayeri, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately overhaul the nation’s security architecture, expressing fear that the country may go completely broke if the president delays in overhauling the security architecture, which agents it blamed for the unpleasant development.
The statement reads: “The massive theft going on in the Niger Delta of our national resources has greatly affected our economy and if something is not done fast to stop it, Nigeria will be too broke to even buy stationery to run its offices,” it said.
“We believe this massive theft cannot happen without connivance and incompetency on the side of the security agencies. We, therefore, appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to wade the big stick by totally overhauling the entire security architecture to guarantee effective oil revenue regime.
“Some security operatives deployed to beef up security for sundry oil exploration and related activities usually assist those plundering oil pipelines and sabotaging government’s efforts to curtail illegal oil bunkering operations and related acts.
“Some personnel of these security agencies are also the backbones of those operating illegal refineries – providing safety networks for their operations, camps, operational facilities and even safeguarding the transportation and the delivery of illegally refined products to their delivery points.
“We have equally observed that the collaborators of the security agents are mostly militants, ‘community boys’ who are recruited, armed, and provided ‘buffer zones’ within which to operate.
“As indigenes of the Niger Delta region, we have observed first-hand the activities of illegal bunkering and refining of crude oil into petroleum motor spirit (PMS) and automated gas oil (AGO) or diesel used by heavy duty vehicles.
“These unpleasant activities of saboteurs is seriously telling on the nation’s economy. We fear that if action is not taken immediately against these enemies of the state starting with immediate and comprehensive overhauling of the security architecture, Nigeria may go completely broke.
“It is in this regard that we appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to act fast, so that Nigeria can be rescued.”
