Senator Ned Nwoko, the vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment, claimed that the military destroys ships that are captured transporting contraband and stolen crude oil in order to hide evidence.
Nwoko emphasized that it was nonsensical to delete evidence that could be used to prove a crime had been committed, unless the people supposed to stop the crime were complicit and compromised, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
Vandalism of crude oil pipelines and the destruction of ships transporting contraband or stolen crude oil, in his opinion, were absurd.
“What is the point?” he asked. That defies logic in any way.
Do you think that destroying stolen property is the best course of action when someone is discovered in possession of it? Nope. You take it from them, record it, keep it safe, and bring charges against those responsible.
“And after that, you present that as evidence against them in court and, in the end, you give the product back to its owner.”
The senator, who is also a member of the Senate Committee on Upstream Petroleum, continued by saying that there was compromise and that’s the only reason the military destroyed ships that were being held for theft or lifting of crude oil.
In my opinion, the military is complicit. You are aware that some of them may have compromised, which is why they act in this way.
They have been acquired since it can take weeks at a time to load this type of commodity vessel—the crude—due to the size of the vessels.
Therefore, it isn’t as though you simply arrive, load it, and leave. As a result, loading takes some time, and the majority of them do so from the official platforms.
So who are the parties concerned? Who is in charge of those platforms? Potentially implicated parties include the police, NNPC officials, oil firms, and production companies.
“You know what these people, I mean the joint task team, have in common? They all become wealthy very quickly. They are all purchasing vehicles, homes, and just about anything you can think of. Yes, they have made a compromise.
“It is the sole explanation for why I believe they are unwilling to wait for the vessels to be examined, preferring to delete the evidence since they are aware that it may point to them. They burn them, they ruin them,” Nwoko remarked.
