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Fri, Mar

Senate Calls For Accelerated Prosecution Of Oil Thieves

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The Senate, yesterday, ordered security forces to go after oil thieves and bring them to justice. At a meeting with military and intelligence chiefs to review progress made in the fight against insecurity, the lawmakers lamented the massive loss of crude oil to illegal bunkering in the Niger Delta and the impact on the economy. The upper chamber of the National Assembly also tasked the judiciary to grant accelerated hearing to matters on oil theft and other forms of economic sabotage. It was attended by the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, other principal officers of the Senate and chairmen of security related committees of the Senate. Also in attendance were the Chief of Defence Staff, the three Service Chiefs, Inspector General of Police, Directors-General of National Intelligence Agency (NIA), and the State Security Service (SSS).


The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, stated this in his remarks before a closed session involving the principal officers of the red chamber and the military and security chiefs to review the progress made in the fight against insecurity in the country.

The meeting was a follow-up to a similar one held early in August and it was presided over by Lawan.

According to Lawan, security agents have fought well in dealing with bandits who were either killed or arrested alive, while such effort should be directed at dealing with oil thieves.

“We want to see trials of people who are caught because, when this happens, citizens will know that nobody, no matter how high that person is, can go scot-free, if he or she decides to get involved in this kind of criminal activity.

He said Nigeria has lost so much of its crude oil, saying that at the last count, reports showed that the nation exported just a little above 900,000 barrels of crude oil.

“That is just about 50 per cent, it is supposed to be 1.8 million barrels per day and that is having our revenues and resources for development.

“I want to appeal to the judiciary to give special consideration, once an oil thief is taken to court, we must prosecute them.

“It is not enough to just take away whatever they have stolen and say go and sin no more.”

He expressed delight that the security situation in the country had improved tremendously after the August engagement with the security and military chiefs.

According to him, “Before we closed for our annual summer recess, distinguished senators and indeed, members of the National Assembly expressed so much concerns with respect to the security situation prevailing and we felt we must engage our security agencies so that together, we will continue to fight these challenges in our country.

“I am happy and I’m sure I’m speaking the mind of my colleagues, that after that meeting, till today, we have seen remarkable difference in the fight against insecurity in our country by our Armed Forces and other security agencies and we are very proud of that.

“We pray that this continue because we have seen the initiative and it is for us to finish the job. When Mr. President spoke of ensuring that we return to normalcy by December 2022, I’m sure he had in mind what you have been doing recently.

“I believe that you, our Armed Forces and other security agencies have everything in terms of the morals and determination, even though we still have to give some other support. This meeting therefore is to review what has happened so far.

“While we fight the insecurity in the country, sometimes we capture bandits alive.

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