The Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba, has charged Nigerians to see crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism as a national challenge that requires joint efforts to tackle by all, not just the Nigerian Navy alone.
Ezeoba made this call while fielding questions from journalists after the amphibious raid exercise held at the Tarkwa Bay on Friday.
The exercise was between Nigerian forces, in particular the Nigerian Navy, and other international forces.
Notable among the international forces were those of the UK, Spain, Netherlands, and the United States of America.
The exercise, tagged: “African winds 2013”, was part of the African Partnership Station programme for maritime safety and security.
The APS works cooperatively with the US and international partners to achieve the desired goals of safety and security.
Ezeoba said: “The issue of pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft is an ongoing concern.
“We’re working on that and as we speak, I’m happy to report that we’ve recorded a lot of milestone in successes.
“The rate is reducing.
“It will take a while before you begin to see the tangible results.
“But as I speak, our revenue in terms of crude oil theft is on the reduce, but we need a lot more to do before we can get to that level.
“And it’s a collective responsibility of the whole, not just the Nigerian navy.
“It requires every Nigerian, including members of the press, to understand the dynamics and challenges and begin to structure and to allow us, collectively, drive force.
“It requires education, information and logistics support, which we’re getting from the government but everybody should see it as a national challenge and buy into the idea and begin to do the needful at micro level that would take us to the macro level, so that collectively we can deal with this scourge.
“We’ll get there, but the awareness and support is very important.”
Speaking on suspects who had been arrested by the Navy over issues of crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism, charged to court, but soon on the streets, back to their old crime, Ezeoba described such problem as one of enforcement, revealing that President Goodluck Jonathan was already tackling the issue.
His words: “We understand the challenges that the judiciary is having, but I assure you that this had recently received a lot of boost because Mr. President has directed the Attorney General of the Federation, who is working assiduously to address this important area of prosecution.
“He has put a structure in place and in the nearest future, you’ll begin to see that these issues are dealt with expeditiously.”
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