Alison-Madueke
SIMON UTEBOR encounters some oil thieves operating in the Niger Delta. Additional report by GEOFF IYATSE
The Nigerian government is still grappling with oil theft and related crimes in the oil-rich Bayelsa State as activities of oil criminals still persist there.
Bayelsa is one of the nine states in the Niger Delta that produce the oil and gas that account for about 90 per cent of the Nigeria’s revenue and approximately 95 per cent of its foreign revenue.
Nigeria’s economy revolves around oil and gas and it will be prostrate without them. Yet, past efforts to placate the former Niger Delta militants and aggrieved youths have yet to fully achieve the desired results.
Though the majority of former agitators have been integrated in the amnesty programme of the Federal Government, some ex-agitators, who felt excluded from the package have pitched their tent with an army of unemployed youths to go back to the creeks – to steal oil, burst pipelines and commit other crimes.
At present, many cartels have been formed to perpetrate the criminal activities. As a result, the government’s special security outfit – the Joint Military Task Force – is daily battling with oil criminals in the state and other Niger Delta states.
Some of the suspected oil thieves said they engaged in the nefarious activities because of lack of jobs; poverty, neglect, environmental degradation and insensitivity on the part of the government and oil multinationals.
They boasted that until the alleged injustices in the region were addressed, even the combined operations of the Nigerian security forces would not deter them.
Once upon an oil thief
Mr. Tubokeyie Dauyeibo, an indigene of Peretorugbene in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, told our correspondent in an interview that he was compelled to relocate to the creeks after he searched for jobs unsuccessfully for years.
He said he would not have contemplated taking to the crime if he had what to do to earn a decent living.
Dauyeibo said his business was to locate, break pipelines and steal petroleum products from them.
He also said he was a part of the brains behind many illegal refineries that now dot the creeks, adding that he was an expert in the crude cooking business.
Dauyeibo, who claimed to have quit the illegal venture, said he had formed an organisation, the Movement for Eradication of Local Refineries and Pipeline Vandalism, to join forces with the relevant authorities to fight the menace.
‘I made N5m monthly’
Dauyeibo described the business as the quickest way of becoming overnight millionaires. He recalled that he used to make over N5m monthly from the business.
He said, “I was making a lot of money when I was doing the business. In a month I could make up to N5m. I had some workers. My first operation was in Mbiama, Ahoada East, Rivers State.
“I was both in the business of taking the crude oil and refining it. Through the business, I acquired some parcels of land, built a house and bought a car. I had refineries. But now l have closed down all of them because I don’t want to do the business again. We have all the ideas and techniques of breaking pipelines to take the crude oil, build the refineries and refine the oil.”
How we buy and sell
Miss Josephine Okosisi (not real name) is a dealer in buying and selling of illegally-refined product, particularly Automated Gas Oil.
Okosisi told our correspondent that perpetrators usually bought their products from local refiners and sold to vessels from Calabar, Cross River State and Lagos State.
She said, “We supply the products we buy from illegal refiners to vessels from Lagos and Calabar. We sell the products in drums and each drum is about 30 litres.
“I buy a drum for N5,000 and sell it for N10,000. The business is lucrative. At times, I buy 500 drums, which is N5m and sell it for N10m. After all the expenses, including ‘settling’ the security men, I make close to N350,000 per deal.
“I must confess, I do not know where the vessels we supply sell their products. Many of us are into the business and we are doing it because there is no job. Even some people who have jobs are under-employed. That is why we brave the odds and go into the illicit business.”
On his part, Dauyeibo said there were many buyers for the illegal products, insisting that local and international markets for illegally refined products had continued to expand.
He said, “We have many buyers that used to patronise us. They come with vessels to load. We also used small boats to load the products and take them to the vessels.
“Even the white men come to load the products. If they can stop the channel where vessels come through, the business will collapse.”
Taming the monster
Dauyeibo, the ex-refiner, further lamented that the government had allowed economic sabotage to be entrenched in the region.
He described the business as a festering sore, saying over 7,000 youths were engaged in it.
He said military actions alone, through the activities of the JTF and other security agencies, could not end the sabotage.
Besides, he lamented that most operatives of the security outfits who claimed to be fighting the menace were encouraging the act by allegedly taking bribes.
Also, Coordinator, Environmental Right Action, Bayelsa State, Mr. Morris Alagoa, said there were political and socio-economic factors responsible for the menace.
Alagoa said until poverty, unemployment, neglect, environmental degradation, lack of infrastructure were addressed, there could not be any headway.
Alagoa said, “The people are angry with the government and the oil companies for not providing jobs for them. They believe oil is going out of their soil, yet the people are hungry, poor and without jobs.
“So, they feel going into oil theft is the best way they can get their own share of the national cake as activities by oil majors have cut off their means of livelihood.”
JTF denies involvement
Spokesperson, JTF, Lt.-Col Mustapha Anka, had, during an interview, denied allegations of their men and officers’ involvement in oil theft, saying the task force had zero tolerance for oil crimes in the region.
Anka said, “The JTF, under Maj.-Gen. Emmanuel Atewe, has zero tolerance for oil theft and any other crimes in the Niger Delta. I must say I am surprised at the allegation.
“As far as we are concerned, any money received from oil criminals is regarded as blood money. We do not indulge in it and any of our men caught in this respect will contend with the law. Oil theft is a serious issue in Nigeria.”
Building illegal refineries
Still, Dauyeibo, who trained as a welder in a technical college, gave an insight on the methods of building refineries.
He said, “To build the refineries, we buy plates and take them to the creeks and begin to build. When we construct them, we begin to feed crude oil into them and begin to cook the crude.
“The first product that flows out during the refining process is fuel. When the fuel is flowing out, gas is also escaping through the air. We can build local refineries. I did the business a year and four months and I made millions.
“There are always wastages in local refining. When we get the products we want, we throw other byproducts away. The pipelines are buried inside the ground. We use rods to test the ground and locate the pipelines. After locating the pipelines, we begin to load with hoses.
“Wherever there is a pipeline, as far as there is a river, we are capable of vandalising the pipeline. No pipeline is safe in this region.”
Revenue loss to oil criminals
The body responsible for the audits of oil sector in Nigeria, the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, indicated that huge sums of money was lost to crude oil theft and sabotage.
Though NEITI has yet to make known the revenue loss in the last three years, its report between 2009 and 2011 indicated that Nigeria lost 146 million barrels, an estimated $11.8bn to oil theft and pipeline vandalism during the period.
According to report recently credited to the NNPC, about 150,000 barrels of crude, equivalent of seven per cent of the country’s production, is said to be stolen daily. It was noted that on the basis of the global market price, the country loses about $13m (N2.15bn) to criminals on a daily basis.
Indeed, not long ago, the Minister of Finance/Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, also raised the alarm that the country was losing $1bn to oil theft menace monthly. The minister said that Nigerians, not outsiders, must rise against the challenge to save the doom day.
“We ourselves need to take our own steps to stop those who are involved in participating. There is a kind of a criminal cartel, both domestic and foreign,” she said, adding that the country’s oil and gas sector needed to become more transparent.
Also, President Goodluck Jonathan has described the situation where it is only in Nigeria that crude oil is stolen with impunity as extremely embarrassing and unacceptable.
The question on the lips of many concerned Nigerians, however, is: Who will tame the monster? This becomes relevant based on the fear that some influential Nigerians are the brains behind the menace.
The Nigerian government is still grappling with oil theft and related crimes in the oil-rich Bayelsa State as activities of oil criminals still persist there.
Bayelsa is one of the nine states in the Niger Delta that produce the oil and gas that account for about 90 per cent of the Nigeria’s revenue and approximately 95 per cent of its foreign revenue.
Nigeria’s economy revolves around oil and gas and it will be prostrate without them. Yet, past efforts to placate the former Niger Delta militants and aggrieved youths have yet to fully achieve the desired results.
Though the majority of former agitators have been integrated in the amnesty programme of the Federal Government, some ex-agitators, who felt excluded from the package have pitched their tent with an army of unemployed youths to go back to the creeks – to steal oil, burst pipelines and commit other crimes.
At present, many cartels have been formed to perpetrate the criminal activities. As a result, the government’s special security outfit – the Joint Military Task Force – is daily battling with oil criminals in the state and other Niger Delta states.
Some of the suspected oil thieves said they engaged in the nefarious activities because of lack of jobs; poverty, neglect, environmental degradation and insensitivity on the part of the government and oil multinationals.
They boasted that until the alleged injustices in the region were addressed, even the combined operations of the Nigerian security forces would not deter them.
Once upon an oil thief
Mr. Tubokeyie Dauyeibo, an indigene of Peretorugbene in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, told our correspondent in an interview that he was compelled to relocate to the creeks after he searched for jobs unsuccessfully for years.
He said he would not have contemplated taking to the crime if he had what to do to earn a decent living.
Dauyeibo said his business was to locate, break pipelines and steal petroleum products from them.
He also said he was a part of the brains behind many illegal refineries that now dot the creeks, adding that he was an expert in the crude cooking business.
Dauyeibo, who claimed to have quit the illegal venture, said he had formed an organisation, the Movement for Eradication of Local Refineries and Pipeline Vandalism, to join forces with the relevant authorities to fight the menace.
‘I made N5m monthly’
Dauyeibo described the business as the quickest way of becoming overnight millionaires. He recalled that he used to make over N5m monthly from the business.
He said, “I was making a lot of money when I was doing the business. In a month I could make up to N5m. I had some workers. My first operation was in Mbiama, Ahoada East, Rivers State.
“I was both in the business of taking the crude oil and refining it. Through the business, I acquired some parcels of land, built a house and bought a car. I had refineries. But now l have closed down all of them because I don’t want to do the business again. We have all the ideas and techniques of breaking pipelines to take the crude oil, build the refineries and refine the oil.”
How we buy and sell
Miss Josephine Okosisi (not real name) is a dealer in buying and selling of illegally-refined product, particularly Automated Gas Oil.
Okosisi told our correspondent that perpetrators usually bought their products from local refiners and sold to vessels from Calabar, Cross River State and Lagos State.
She said, “We supply the products we buy from illegal refiners to vessels from Lagos and Calabar. We sell the products in drums and each drum is about 30 litres.
“I buy a drum for N5,000 and sell it for N10,000. The business is lucrative. At times, I buy 500 drums, which is N5m and sell it for N10m. After all the expenses, including ‘settling’ the security men, I make close to N350,000 per deal.
“I must confess, I do not know where the vessels we supply sell their products. Many of us are into the business and we are doing it because there is no job. Even some people who have jobs are under-employed. That is why we brave the odds and go into the illicit business.”
On his part, Dauyeibo said there were many buyers for the illegal products, insisting that local and international markets for illegally refined products had continued to expand.
He said, “We have many buyers that used to patronise us. They come with vessels to load. We also used small boats to load the products and take them to the vessels.
“Even the white men come to load the products. If they can stop the channel where vessels come through, the business will collapse.”
Taming the monster
Dauyeibo, the ex-refiner, further lamented that the government had allowed economic sabotage to be entrenched in the region.
He described the business as a festering sore, saying over 7,000 youths were engaged in it.
He said military actions alone, through the activities of the JTF and other security agencies, could not end the sabotage.
Besides, he lamented that most operatives of the security outfits who claimed to be fighting the menace were encouraging the act by allegedly taking bribes.
Also, Coordinator, Environmental Right Action, Bayelsa State, Mr. Morris Alagoa, said there were political and socio-economic factors responsible for the menace.
Alagoa said until poverty, unemployment, neglect, environmental degradation, lack of infrastructure were addressed, there could not be any headway.
Alagoa said, “The people are angry with the government and the oil companies for not providing jobs for them. They believe oil is going out of their soil, yet the people are hungry, poor and without jobs.
“So, they feel going into oil theft is the best way they can get their own share of the national cake as activities by oil majors have cut off their means of livelihood.”
JTF denies involvement
Spokesperson, JTF, Lt.-Col Mustapha Anka, had, during an interview, denied allegations of their men and officers’ involvement in oil theft, saying the task force had zero tolerance for oil crimes in the region.
Anka said, “The JTF, under Maj.-Gen. Emmanuel Atewe, has zero tolerance for oil theft and any other crimes in the Niger Delta. I must say I am surprised at the allegation.
“As far as we are concerned, any money received from oil criminals is regarded as blood money. We do not indulge in it and any of our men caught in this respect will contend with the law. Oil theft is a serious issue in Nigeria.”
Building illegal refineries
Still, Dauyeibo, who trained as a welder in a technical college, gave an insight on the methods of building refineries.
He said, “To build the refineries, we buy plates and take them to the creeks and begin to build. When we construct them, we begin to feed crude oil into them and begin to cook the crude.
“The first product that flows out during the refining process is fuel. When the fuel is flowing out, gas is also escaping through the air. We can build local refineries. I did the business a year and four months and I made millions.
“There are always wastages in local refining. When we get the products we want, we throw other byproducts away. The pipelines are buried inside the ground. We use rods to test the ground and locate the pipelines. After locating the pipelines, we begin to load with hoses.
“Wherever there is a pipeline, as far as there is a river, we are capable of vandalising the pipeline. No pipeline is safe in this region.”
Revenue loss to oil criminals
The body responsible for the audits of oil sector in Nigeria, the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, indicated that huge sums of money was lost to crude oil theft and sabotage.
Though NEITI has yet to make known the revenue loss in the last three years, its report between 2009 and 2011 indicated that Nigeria lost 146 million barrels, an estimated $11.8bn to oil theft and pipeline vandalism during the period.
According to report recently credited to the NNPC, about 150,000 barrels of crude, equivalent of seven per cent of the country’s production, is said to be stolen daily. It was noted that on the basis of the global market price, the country loses about $13m (N2.15bn) to criminals on a daily basis.
Indeed, not long ago, the Minister of Finance/Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, also raised the alarm that the country was losing $1bn to oil theft menace monthly. The minister said that Nigerians, not outsiders, must rise against the challenge to save the doom day.
“We ourselves need to take our own steps to stop those who are involved in participating. There is a kind of a criminal cartel, both domestic and foreign,” she said, adding that the country’s oil and gas sector needed to become more transparent.
Also, President Goodluck Jonathan has described the situation where it is only in Nigeria that crude oil is stolen with impunity as extremely embarrassing and unacceptable.
The question on the lips of many concerned Nigerians, however, is: Who will tame the monster? This becomes relevant based on the fear that some influential Nigerians are the brains behind the menace.
The Punch
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