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”.
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Politics