The Nigerian Navy has challenged former self acclaimed leader of agitator and Niger Delta leader, Mujahid Asari Dokubo, to provide emperical evidence with names of officers involved in crude oil theft.
Dokubo had earlier made claims, saying that majority of oil theft cases in the oil-rich region can be traced to the Nigerian Army and
Navy.
Briefing the State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa, Dokubo said, “The military is at the center of oil theft, and we have to make this very clear to the Nigerian public that 99 percent of oil theft can be traced to the Nigerian military, the Army and the Navy especially.”
Reacting to these allegations, Commodore Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan, spokesman for Nigerian Navy, dismissed the claims as “spurious and unguarded.”
Ayo-Vaughan said oil thieves were expressing frustration because the Nigerian Navy, alongside the entire military, had been relentlessly preventing their attempts to sabotage the economy through the ongoing “Operation DAKATAR DA BARAWO.”
Ayo-Vaughan pointed out that the Nigerian Navy, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, would continue to obstruct crude oil thieves in their attempts to harm Nigeria’s economy.
He challenged Dokubo to present the names of those involved, saying that “the Navy maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of criminality, including the alleged theft mentioned by Asari Dokubo.”
He went on “The Navy has an operation in the Niger-Delta that has been running for over one year plus to curb oil theft. Operation DAKATAR DA BARAWO has denied oil thieves more than N76billion worth of crude oil. The money that would have helped them to further increase their illegal artisanal refineries.
“So, the Navy is actively fighting oil theft. For anybody to make such spurious allegations, bring the names. He (Dokubo) is in the Niger Delta, he has boys in the Niger Delta.
“The company that was given a contract by the NNPC on pipeline surveillance, they are working with the Nigerian Navy and Operation Delta Safe in the Niger-Delta to curb oil theft.
“For somebody to just make such unguarded statement, bring the names. You know that there is an operation (Operation DAKATA BARAWO) going on in the Niger Delta being run by the Nigerian Navy since April last year. The Navy has been running it in synergy with the NNPC.
“NNPC holds regular meetings with the Chief of Naval Staff to review the operations. Just last week, the Chief Executive of NUPREC was here to have a meeting with CNS. Just two days ago, the management team for the other one on downstream regulatory authority were also here to have a meeting. For us, if you want to make such spurious allegations, bring the names. Simple!”
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