Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
An ex-Niger Delta militant, Alhaji Asari Dokubu, has said that over 99 percent of the oil theft that takes place in Nigeria is carried out by some army and navy officials.
Dokubo disclosed this while speaking to State House journalists after a meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Friday. He said that the reason behind his visit to the President was to give words of encouragement to the new national leader for his actions and pronouncements ever since he assumed office.
Dokubo also alleged that the people carrying out and prolonging oil bunkering in the Niger Delta region are powerful cabals, who are most times operating from Abuja with an entitlement mentality.
In his own words, “we discussed the issues of security and oil theft in Niger Delta. My brothers and I have assured Mr. President that there will be no more oil theft in the Niger Delta. The military is at the center of oil theft. 99 percent of such criminal activities can be traced to the Nigerian military; the army and the navy. They intimidate the Civil Defence, which is responsible for protecting oil and gas facilities. They remain the main culprits.
There are notorious army commanders that are kingpins in oil theft. The military men are busy stealing. The insurgents are harvesting from the Nigerian military and the police in order to promote their criminality.”
The ex-militant further revealed that his people have been deployed to different parts of the country in order to maintain peace, adding that it is his people that have made it possible for Nigerians to travel from Abuja to Kaduna and vice versa.
According to him, the President has promised to take decisive action in order to make sure that this does not continue and that “I volunteered to help bring this evil to an end. I can take a bullet for Tinubu.”