In the name of protecting and securing Nigeria and Multinational’s oil installations and facilities, curtailing militants attacks and activities, maintaining law and order in the troubled Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. This is why the Joint Task Force [JTF] was established, but has this outfit lived up to it's billings?
In the name of protecting and securing Nigeria and Multinational’s oil installations and facilities, curtailing militants attacks and activities, maintaining law and order in the troubled Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. This is why the Joint Task Force [JTF] was established, but has this outfit lived up to it's billings?
Shell Petroleum Development Company [SPDC] claims it has been loosing 60,000 barrels of oil from theft along it's Nembe trunk line, the highest in three years! There also the oil thief barons building expansive farm tanks, refineries and large ocean going barges, robbing the Niger Delta of its resources.
The JTF, that is supposedly mandated to man the Niger Delta creeks down the Bonny River Channel, has gone to sleep or simply put' 'turned a blind eye' to the sophisticated and powerful oil thefts barons. The JTF is equipped with Naval speed boats and reconnaissance hover crafts. How can these devastating atrocities have been perpetrated and committed under the nose and eyes of the JTF, without them discovering, arresting and prosecuting the masterminds?
Close to $7 billion dollars was said to have been lost to oil theft Is JTF up to the task of securing the Niger Delta? The plundering of Niger Delta in the name of keeping peace is now glaring and becoming a stark reality. The recent court judgment against the federal government for the Odi invasion and annihilation of it's entire citizenry still remains fresh. What about the Gbaramatu mop up by the JTF?
The multinationals can provide and maintain their respective pipelines if allowed, as their security personnel will not compromise. The JTF activities in the Niger Delta region should be investigated and if possible a total pull out of the JTF from the region should occur and allow the multinationals oil companies to hire their own private security personnel to manned their pipelines and incorporate the local vigilantes along the pipelines.
With the possible closure of it's Nembe trunk line by Shell Petroleum Development Company [SPDC], for what the company Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mutiu Sunmonu called 'Extensive Plundering', JTF activities should be called to question as to how and why these activities are taking place under their eyes.
From Odi invasion to Gbaramatu Kingdom mop up and annihilation, what is JTF still doing in the Niger Delta Region? Where as the aim then was to maintain peace, protect the Bonny River Channel and curtailed the then restless Niger Delta Militants, the multinationals have contracted out the security of their respective pipelines to the security officials [ex-militants] and this has to some extent reduced the vandalizing of oil pipelines. Let these steps be extended to the creeks and Bonny River Channel.
Enough of this plundering in the Niger Delta in the name of keeping PEACE!
Taiwo Lawrence Adeyemi
Alternate Email: [email protected]
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters
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