ASHENEWS reports that a former Minister of Communications and Chairman of the Presidential Review Committee for the General Abisoye Panel on NNPC Reforms, retired Major General Tajudeen Olanrewaju, has observed that the involvement of non-state actors in the protection of Nigeria’s oil pipelines, is not healthy for the country.
Olarenwaju, in a statement by his Media Office on Thursday, advised that constitutionally recognized military institutions should be well-positioned and equipped to protect oil pipelines through specially trained and strategically built forces like it is done in India and Venezuela.
Olanrewaju advised in reaction to the killing of 16 soldiers who were on a peace mission to Okuoma in Bomadi local government area of Delta state.
The Olanrewaju’s intervention was coming on the heels of the event that took place in Okuoma.
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“That event in Okuoma gives me an unsettled mind about events surrounding the nation’s high volumes of oil deposits in the Western Delta. The consequences of collateral damages resulting from gang warfare between the two warring communities of Okuoma and Okoloba could lead to further serious consequences of collateral damages to our national assets as a result of this unwarranted conflict.
“I believe strongly that the federal government should reconsider a new security protection template for our oil-rich region, not on a piecemeal basis but the entire oil belt in the country.
“I also have a strong feelings that non-state actors should be called their true identity and not dressed up nicely with a patronizing name. They are militants, thugs, hoodlums and are not different from bandits. That is what they are. Their transition has always been from thuggery, and militancy to terrorism. That was how Boko Haram started,” he stated.
According to Olanrewaju, “The Okuoma community’s land conflict of this nature with its neighbour may signal a new build-up of community warfare that can snowball into a bigger conflict in the region. Who knows? It was Odi, Zaki Biam, now Okuoma and Okoloba. This is a smoldering smoke that must be quenched as quickly as possible. The earlier the federal government steps in quickly and keeps the smoldering smoke down as fast as possible, the better in the oil region.
“My view as my committee suggested on Gen Abisoye’s NNPC Report still stands the test of time. The NSA and the Military High Command must come out with a new Creek defence plan and policy to include the crude oil zone, oil platform, offshore assets, and resources to support them by laws, regulations, and the Constitution.
“As a matter of digression, I have made the point that the so-called non-state actors cannot protect our oil pipelines for lack of total patriotism. The nation needs a national institution to protect our national assets. We need to apply capital punishment for offences relating to oil theft in the Niger Delta region and banditry around our mining states. The nation derives its revenues from these resources. This definition has to be made clear in our laws and the Constitution. Those soldiers must not die in vain.
“There is nowhere in the world where some sections of the society will be fighting unprotected military officers on a peace mission. It is because of the armed forces, as an institution, and the police that Nigeria is still united. And for a set of people to gang up to cut, burn, and kill military officers? It is not done and must not be allowed to be pushed under. Perpetrators must be fished out and punished,” the statement further reads.
