ON WATCH: JTF oil theft complicity

234Next

20 Feb 2011

ON WATCH: JTF oil theft complicity

By Stephen Davis
There has been much indignation expressed over a Dutch parliamentarian’s accusations of JTF complicity in oil theft.

No doubt I will be accused of slurring the JTF by merely discussing the issue in this column. But let’s slow down and look at the situation that we face. While the specific instances of JTF involvement in bunkering alluded to by the Dutch parliamentarian are not clear there is no denying 14 Naval personnel are among those persons currently being investigated over theft of equipment worth millions of naira from vessels allegedly involved in illegal oil bunkering. These 14 were whittled down from an original group of 60 naval personal initial suspected of involvement.

This is not a new situation. In recent years some vessels arrested for illegal oil bunkering have simply disappeared while under Navy charge. Two Admirals have been court marshalled. There have been periods when Nigeria’s naval forces showed little interest in pursuing vessels transporting stolen oil either inshore or offshore. Barges ferried stolen oil from wellheads to waiting tankers with seeming impunity.