By Joshua Egbodo
Abuja
House of Representatives has called for the involvement of experts by the nation’s security agencies in the destruction of illegal refineries, as well as recovery of stolen crude through illegal bunkering.
Consequently, it mandated its Committees on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Environment and Habitat, Army, Navy, Interior, Niger Delta, and Legislative Compliance to interface with relevant security agencies to ensure that officials of relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are involved in the process of destroying illegal refineries and boats laden with petroleum products to guarantee, to an extent, retrieval of the stolen crude oil.
The House said doing so will help avoid spillage, either on land or water, as well as minimise economic losses and also avoid pollution and degradation of the environment, as the committee is expected to report back in six (6) weeks.
A member, Hon. Owoidighe Ekpoattai, had in a motion on the matter, said the increase in illegal oil refineries in the creeks of the Niger Delta has become alarming, and has added a new twist to the economic and security challenges confronting the nation, even with the plan of turning them to modular refineries.
According to him, in a bid to curb the menace, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Navy have collectively destroyed at least 280 illegal refineries and barges loaded with petroleum products and secured the conviction of 40 perpetrators out of the 118 arrests made in the last one year in the Niger Delta region.
