I will end oil theft in Nigeria if given mandate – Rear Admiral Suleiman (Rtd)

At the resumed public hearing into the illegal lifting of crude oil in Nigeria and to address the root causes of challenges facing the oil/gas sector organised by the House of Representatives Special Commitee on Oil Theft and Losses, a former Commander of the Joint Task Force on lllegal Oil Bunkering (JTF), ‘Operation Delta Safe’, Rear Admiral Akpochi Suleiman (rtd) has vowed to take all legitimate action and by whatever means necessary to end the scourge of oil theft within the nation’s shores if called upon to do so again.

The tough talking, resolute and no-nonsense Rear Admiral Akpochi Suleiman made this overarching assertion during a resonating testimony before the Special Commitee chaired by Hon Ado Alhassan Doguwa on the 25th, July 2024 in which the JTF supremo recalled the operational, logistical and tactical strategies he adopted to checkmate oil thieves, illegal refiners, pipeline vandals and other assorted criminal elements in the Niger Delta stating that there was no sacred cows during his action-laden tenure from 2017-2019:

He said: “First of all, l want to state categorically that there is no way crude oil could get stolen from the nation’s export pipeline without the collaboration of this three groups, operators of oil wells, security agents and sponsors of oil theft.

“The pressure of flow on the lines is usually very high and nobody can afford to take crude illegally from the pipelines when there is crude on the line. It can only happen when there is no crude and only one set of persons will be aware when the pipeline is dry.

“What that mean is that those who operate the lines are working with the sponsors of these criminal gangs to steal our crude and these are people who are well known. If I mention names here, you will be shocked. With all these factors in mind, during my stint as JTF commander, we were able to drastically curtail oil theft, illegal oil refining and vandalisation of pipelines because we adopted a tough take no prisoners approach to tackling the multi-faceted challenges as they reared their ugly heads.

All those who were saying we should arrest and not destroy the illegal bunkering vessels were merely joking as far as l was concerned. I destroyed all the arrested vessels and sank them immediately as that was the mandate given to me to destroy the vessels in situ, to break the value chain completely.

Those people who are coming to this Commitee to urge that the vessels should not be destroyed are mostly owners of the seized vessels, l know them but I will not give their names publicly.

Our JTF troops were deployed to identified areas where illegality thrived for quick response and we employed human intelligence ( humint) assets in addition to several other vital intelligence assets, and patrols were conducted to legitimate bunkering sites to ensure uninterrupted oil production as well as areas notorious for illegal bunkering in order to destroy such sites.

Degradation of such illegal bunkering sites beyond immediate reactivation was effected utilising special equipment which we procured from money given to us by the oil companies and the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) who had direct control over the JTF operations.

During the period under review, illegal bunkerers used firearms to protect their illegal bunkering sites. Our troops were attacked on several occasions by the militants resulting in some killed in action and their weapons carted away. Thus we equally applied kinetic means to take them out and l never took any armed persons prisoner, they were neutralised summarily. In order to ensure the realisation of the JTF mandate during the period l led it as commander, we initiated several operations for a number of days. In some instances, the focus of the operations was the complicity and connivance of some of our personnel as well as sponsors of crude oil theft and other criminal activities.

During these operations, the JTF Headquarters visited all joint areas and patrolled almost all the creeks in the Niger Delta. I didn’t leave my men to patrol for me, l led the patrol of all the Niger Delta creeks .

I don’t understand when people talk of insecurity of the oil pipelines because we identified the 6 major trunk lines: Trans-Forcados, Trans-Gramos, Trans-Niger, Nembe Creek Trunk Line and Tigigaba Trunk Line. And we looked for the contractors, and that is why l wanted the NNPC to be around today, because they employed contractors as security to man these trunk lines. What we did was to ask the NNPC to bring all the contractors responsible for security and if there was any infraction on the trunk lines we would hold the contractors responsible. It was that simple and that made them to ensure that everything was calm This strategy reduced pipeline vandalism and significantly increased oil and gas production because the contractors were hAll the oil producing communities had contracts with the oil companies and they gave the communities enough money to execute the contracts and nowhere was any host community abandoned. Some of the communities are here and they can bear me witness or challenge me if they feel otherwise’. On the total eradication of illegal bunkering, pipeline vandalisation, oil theft and other associated criminal activities, a steadfast Rear Admiral Akpochi Suleiman stood his ground that it was achievable and restated his capability to do the job if called upon to command the famed JTF: ‘lf we want to stop oil theft and pipeline vandalisation, we must first agree that we must stop it, we must summon the political will and within one month we can end it. As far as it is a Nigerian matter, l can do the job if called upon to do so, even though l am a retired commanding officer. lf l am called upon to midwife or to ensure that oil theft is stopped and l am empowered to do so, l am not talking of money, but putting in place the proper policies, l will stop oil theft completely. I am above 60 yrs of age, l am not afraid of any cabal. We sank the vessels we arrested because we wanted to break the value chain while the vessel operators were handed over to the law enforcement agencies. My officers and the lawyers under my command followed the suspects to the courts to ensure that they were prosecuted. We don’t just hand over the suspects, we ensured that they were fully prosecuted. So l don’t understand what they are saying that some of our suspects were not prosecuted. The oil theft cabal will try to stop you by protesting and bringing up all kinds of allegations against you like they were falsely alleging that l was the one bringing vessels to load oil as JTF commander but my superiors assured me that l was tightening the noose against the cabal and l should disregard their allegations and continue the good job l was doing. So l have drastically curbed oil theft and pipeline vandalisation in the past and l stand ready to do so if called upon again in any such capacity. Thank you’ – an emphatic Rear Admiral Akpochi Suleiman (rtd) concluded before the House of Reps Special Commitee on Oil Theft and Losses.