Pipeline vandals are now to spend 21 years behind bars.
And this will be without an option of fine.
This was one of the resolutions of the meeting of the National Economic Committee that just ended in Abuja.
The NEC is made up of the 36 state governors and the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, among others.
It is chaired by Vice-President Namadi Sambo.
Other resolutions of NEC include the setting up of a Legal Task Force, to be headed by Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.
The assignment of the task force is to commence immediately.
The Legal Task Force is to be made up of lawyers from relevant security agencies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State, who chairs the committee on oil theft, told State House correspondents that the committee will be in operation for one year in the first instance.
More details soon.
The update
The Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, briefed the Council on the work of the committee set up at the last meeting to draw up a roadmap to guide further actions that would be taken by NEC towards finding a lasting solution to the problem crude oil theft.
The governor stated that the Committee was working on providing both long and short term strategies and provided the following as part of the interim measures that have been adopted in carrying out the assignment:
A technical level meeting involving key stakeholders has been held, where concerned agencies, including security outfits, have made useful submissions, with more submissions expected from other stakeholders, especially from the oil producing states.
The Committee has moved to address the issue of the 400,000 barrels per day production shortfall.
The governors of Bayelsa and Delta States have been mandated to meet with the concerned oil majors and the Joint Task Force (the security outfit in the Niger Delta) to work out modalities for the effective repair of the Nembe and Trans Niger pipelines, which are currently shut.
The Committee also mandated the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Obong Godswill Akpabio; the Secretary to National Planning Commission; the NEITI chief executive; and a representative of the Inspector General of Police to meet with the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, towards strengthening the extant deterrence policy by ensuring more arrests and convictions of the oil thieves.
In this regard, a meeting of the Governor Akpabio-led Committee with the AGF on Thursday morning.
They agreed on the following resolutions:
A legal task force, headed by the AGF, to be set up immediately to commence prosecution of proven cases, using relevant laws, particularly the Miscellaneous Offences Act, which carries a sentence of 21 years without option of fine
The legal task force is to be made up of representatives from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, the Armed Forces, Civil Defence, Police, Department of State Security and other related agencies
The task force is to be in force for one year with effect from July 2013.
The members of the task force are to be announced by the AGF on July 22, 2013.
Prosecution of established cases, according to NEC, will continue and all convictions given wide publicity.
The Council commended the efforts of the Committee and further urged it to ensure that the bid to repair the shut pipelines is achieved within the targeted period of six to eight weeks.