A former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyesiegha, on Tuesday accused expatriates of planning their own kidnaps to get money from their oil companies.
Besides, he accused the expatriates of being largely responsible for the stealing of about 50 per cent of the crude oil in Nigeria.
He also said he arrested some suspected oil bunkerers which he handed over to the police but was surprised that they were later released without prosecution during the tenure of former President Olusegun
Obasanjo.
Alamieyeseigha stated these when officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, appeared before National Conference Committee on Public Finance.
He said, “I had one experience. Tankers were loaded in Bayelsa State. I got the information and laid ambush for them and arrested them – about 14 big tankers – and they were handed over to the police.
They were charged to court and the judge ordered that the product should be tested, they were crude oil. NNPC was invited, they came, took the sample and after a week the result came out as agro chemical and before I know all of them have been released.
He said, he had an encounter with Obasanjo after the event where he expressed his disappointment but that government did not do anything about it.
Alamieyeseigha said expatriates were deeply involved in oil bunkering and even collaborated with militants to kidnap themselves in the heydays of militancy in the Niger Delta region.
He said, “In fact expatriates are more involved in the crime than Nigerians. In fact some of them even offer themselves to be arrested so that when there is compensation they have a share of it. They are also involved
in kidnapping.
“They allow themselves to be kidnapped. Oil companies are invited, their home countries will shout that their men are kidnapped; management of oil companies will now make efforts and pay
ransom. When the ransom is paid they are released and that money is shared among them. So, it is a high level conspiracy that is going on.”
The former governor also accused retired naval officers of being involved in oil theft and stressed that the local boys that were regularly arrested for oil theft were mere “escorts” as they did not
have the international connections to sell stolen crude oil.
“The so-called militants we celebrate that tap oil they are only employed as escorts. If there is no buyer we will not find a seller. The post retirement job of a senior naval officer is bunkering. None of those boys you see in the Niger Delta have the necessary connections to bring ships to our economic zone to lift. Those that
are making the connections are also part of us.
“In fact almost 50 percent of what we produce in this country is being siphoned outside to augment the international market. And where is the oil going? It is going to those countries and they know the type of
oil that is coming out from Nigeria. It is different from others. The sulphur content here is very low and they know this but everybody is gaining from it.
“Let the federal government send warning letter to all the embassies that are in this country and give them three months. After three months if we see any ship that is not authorized in our economic zone,
especially in the Niger Delta, that it will be destroyed. Involve the navy, buy few helicopters, buy missiles and after the three months by the time you destroy one or two ships , no country will allow their
ship to ship to enter and so there will be no buyer,” he said.
Source: Punch
