By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and security agencies, including the Nigerian Air Force and the Nigeria Police Force, have pleaded once again with Niger Delta communities to assist efforts to improve the country’s oil production and revitalise its ailing economy.
Speaking on Tuesday at an indoor meeting, the parties declared a fresh war on perpetrators of oil theft in the Niger Delta region.
The Inspector General of Police, Mr Kayode Egbetokun, stressed that no meaningful results could be achieved without the full support of all stakeholders.
He then assured that in the days ahead, Nigerians are going to see results.
“We accept that we have challenges but we must all come together to solve them. So, we need the cooperation of all agencies, we need the cooperation of the citizens. We need to take every step that we need to take to address all these issues. I am assuring you that in days ahead, you are going to see results,” he said.
The fresh intensification of the war against oil theft in Niger Delta areas followed a new directive by the president to the military, police, NNPC and other security agencies to improve the production of crude oil in the region.
On his part, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, said President Bola Tinubu has given them a mandate to ensure that they secure the entire South-South, to enable NNPC and others to carry out their tasks to improve oil production.
According to him, “The truth about it is that whatever is happening in the South-South region has been ongoing for such a long time, and we feel it is high time that it is stopped.”
Mr Musa vowed that going forward, the entire South-South will be cleared of any acts of vandalism, or criminality within the general area.”
“As we said, the President has given us a mandate to ensure that we secure the entire South-South, to enable NNPC and others to carry out their tasks so that we can have improved production. We know that Nigeria relies so much on crude oil production, so we want to use this medium to appeal to the communities, to have an understanding. Yes, we know trust has been a problem, but they can trust us, they can trust the government, that we want to do things differently. Everyone will be carried along”.
Noting that everyone has a role to play in the renewed anti-oil theft operation, the CDS said the ongoing war is not only for the security agencies alone.
“We need the communities to understand that pipeline vandalism and all the hazards being caused are also affecting them directly and we need to stop that. We need to work together, and this meeting we had today is to harmonize that based on the mandates that the President has given us. We are going to work together as a team and all the operations will be harmonized,” he said.
The Defence Chief also noted that the Joint Task Force, with the land components of all the other agencies, is going to work together to bring results.
Modupe Gbadeyanka