President Bola Ahmed Tinubu deployed a high powered team on Monday, to inspect MV Kali, the vessel that was arrested last Thursday at Pennington Oil field in Bayelsa with stolen crude, by operatives of the Tantita Security Services Limited (TSSL) and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
The Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Christopher Musa, led other team members comprising the Chief of Defence Intelligence, Major General Emmanuel Undiandeye; Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari and Chief Upstream Investment Officer, Bala Wunti.
They were joined by the Commander, Joint Task Force (JTF) Operation Delta Safe (OPDS), Rear Admiral Olusegun Ferreira and Commander, Nigerian Navy Ship Delta, Commodore Chindo Yahaya and other senior military officers.
Speaking with Journalists shortly after inspection of the vessel and 23 crew members and accomplices arrested at Oporoza in Warri South West Local Government area of Delta State, on Monday, General Musa said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu directed the “high powered team” to visit the scene and inspect the vessel.
He noted that the team was in Oporoza based on the arrested vessel which he said was a major achievement adding, “It shows that we are committed in ensuring that we stop this criminality within the maritime environment.”
General Musa said the successes recorded were not solely by an organization but a collaborative effort to stem further crude oil theft in the region.
“This is a collaborative effort and we will continue to collaborate with the NNPCL and other private security agencies. The main federal government agencies are also working together. I don’t want a situation where we create it as if there’s enmity between this group and that group.
“We’re working for the same goal; we are all Nigerians. This is our country. Whatever is happening here are acts of criminality that must be stopped by all means. So, I want to make that very clear that all Nigerians must put hands on deck to ensure that we stop these acts.
“The country is bleeding. We need all the forms we need so that this country can grow and develop and it just by stopping criminals like this that will make that very possible”, he said.
He said further, “So why we are here is to come and see; to identify them. The Chief of Defense Intelligence is going to go straight into investigation as to who is involved, what was taken, who sent them, and this is because we want to catch the perpetrators.
“These ones are just the ground troops that are being used; the main actors are there behind, and I want to use this opportunity to warn all those that don’t want to stop this – that enough is enough”.
The CDS noted that the armed forces, the security agencies, communities and private security agencies were working in synergy to achieve a common goal.
“The Armed Forces, the security agencies, the communities, private security agencies, wherever they are; as long as they are contracted by the federal government, we are going to work together as a team”, he said.
Insisting that there was no competition amongst the security agencies and the private security companies, General Musa advised the media to stop making it look like there were fights amongst them.
“Whatever arrests done are collaborative efforts. We are going to continue to do that. And so that is very important.
“We are happy that these have been arrested. We are going to take it off from here and we are going to do more because, henceforth, we are going to enhance our collaboration in ensuring that we check these menace”, he added.
He noted that Nigeria must grow and warned that individuals cannot hold the nation to ransom adding: “There are very few individuals who are making profit from this.
And they don’t want to stop because I would have expected that by now, from all the actions that have been taken to discourage people from doing it. But you can see that people are still hell-bent to steal our crude for their own selfish gains and that must stop.
“We will enhance this capacity, and this year, we will ensure that Nigeria oil production goes up, as much as possible, so that we can all benefit as Nigerians.”
Sylvester Idowu
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