Stop Buying Our Stolen Oil,FG Tells UK ,Others

 
The Minister of State for Defence Erelu Olusola Obada has challenged the UK and other international communities to help Nigeria curtail the growing incidence of crude oil theft in the country by rejecting stolen Nigerian crude destined for their refineries, calling such crude “blood crude”.
Erelu Obada who spoke on ‘Nigerian Defence priorities: Domestic Stability for Regional Security’ at Chatham in London on Thursday likened Nigerian stolen crude to the Liberian and Sierra Leonian blood diamond and demanded the confistication of assets and property of foreign vessel owners and businessmen involved in such blood crude transactions.
The Minister who said crude oil theft constitutes a serious threat to Nigeria’s domestic economic stability and revenue projections said that most of the vessels involved in crude oil theft and illegal oil bunkering are owned by foreigners and foreign entities.
Erelu Obada argued that there would be no market for the stolen crude if no country allows its importation.
She said on the part of Nigeria, the Joint Task Force (JTF) and the Nigerian Navy will continue to crack down on oil thieves and their collaborators through arrest, prosecution and destruction of illegal refineries.
On the challenge of terrorism, she said it was in response to the threats posed by terrorists that government declared a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states and vowed that in view of the multilateral relations Nigeria enjoys with its neighbours there will be no safe haven for Boko Haram and its apologists. “The Armed Forces and other security agencies are currently engaged in multi-agency counter terrorism operations in the three states mentioned with a view to bringing the security situation under control.”
“The threats confronting Nigeria can be summarised as internal and external. Some internal threats include fragilities, illegal trafficking, piracy, unreported and unregulated fishing, Islamic fundamentalism, oil theft and pipleline vandalism as well as terrorism. Worthy of note, is the reality that many of the crimes and illegalities are often trans-national in nature.”
“President Goodluck Jonathan has deployed a long-term strategy, meant to reduce opportunities for religions radicalization. An important component of this strategy is the establishment of 400 schools for Almajiris, which provide Quaranic studies with English, Mathematics and Science etc. State Governments and the national leadership of the Moslem Umma in Nigeria are working hard to reduce radicalisation. On the economic front, our government is improving support to the agriculture and mining sectors to diversify the economy, as well as the rehabilitiation of the railways amongst other transformation programmes to provide employment opportunities to the teeming youth population in Nigeria.”
“In realisation that the security situation cannot be resolved by security agencies alone, the Federal Government as a political strategy established the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in affected areas in the North to complement the efforts of these agencies and to coordinate the process of restoring peace to impacted areas through dialogue. The declaration of the Boko Haram sect as a terroritst group especially by the UK and US has also helped to draw international condemnation on the atrocities of the group”.

CKN NEWS

Chris Kehinde Nwandu is the Editor In Chief of CKNNEWS || He is a Law graduate and an Alumnus of Lagos State University, Lead City University Ibadan and Nigerian Institute Of Journalism || With over 2 decades practice in Journalism, PR and Advertising, he is a member of several Professional bodies within and outside Nigeria || Member: Institute Of Chartered Arbitrators ( UK ) || Member : Institute of Chartered Mediators And Conciliation || Member : Nigerian Institute Of Public Relations || Member : Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria || Fellow : Institute of Personality Development And Customer Relationship Management || Member and Chairman Board Of Trustees: Guild Of Professional Bloggers of Nigeria

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