By Tina Amanda
The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) has called for the immediate issuance of the approved eighteen (18) Modular Refinery licenses, the establishment of a presidential artisanal crude oil refining development initiative (PACORDI) amongst others,
in order to mitigate organized crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea.
YEAC- Nigeria made the call in a communiqué issued at the end of the National Conference on Organized Crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea (NACOCINAG) and the official launch of the Network on Organized Crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea (NOCINAG), organized by YEAC-Nigeria and supported by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GITOC)/Resilience Fund, Austria, held in Port Harcourt.
The Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, in a statement said the nineteen (19) recommendations made at the conference have been submitted to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and copied to other relevant Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of Government, the National Security Adviser including the Service Chiefs among many others.
According to him, YEAC-Nigeria has been at the forefront of the campaign against pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refineries, and pollution, hence it was imperative to submit the communiqué to Mr. President directly.
He explained that certain recommendations required implementation by the Federal Government, which should also be liaised with other countries in the Gulf of Guinea through the Gulf of Guinea Commission to address the menace of organized crime in the Niger Delta, Nigeria, and the Gulf of Guinea.
Fyneface also called on all other stakeholders, including local and international development partners, to support the work, projects, and programs of YEAC-Nigeria as a think tank on organized crime mitigation mechanisms in the Niger Delta, Nigeria, and the Gulf of Guinea.
The Advocacy Centre in the communique recommended the following to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for immediate implementation;
- The establishment of a Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative (PACORDI) for the innovation, modernization, standardization, legalization, and integration of artisanal refineries into the national economy as a corresponding organized crime mitigation mechanism for artisanal crude oil refiners in the Niger Delta, like the illegal gold miners in parts of North and Western Nigeria that the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMI) is established for them to mitigate organized crime in gold mining.
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Immediate issuance of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s approved 18 Modular Refineries licenses for artisanal refiners in the Niger Delta to mitigate organized crime and support sustainable youth empowerment;
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Partnership with other Presidents in the Gulf of Guinea for the establishment of an effective task force against organized crime to be known as “Taskforce Against Organized Crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea (TAOCINAG)”
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A Presidential Directive to the National Security Adviser, Chief of Defense Intelligence, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Inspector General of Police, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Interior, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), National Intelligence Agency (NIA), National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), etc. to collaborate with YEAC-Nigeria on the “Network on Organized Crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea (NOCINAG)” as a multi-stakeholder, inter-ministerial, interagency and civil-security relations’ intelligence gathering and sharing platform that generates information, data, intelligence and share with security formations and operatives to strengthen the fight against organized crime in the Niger Delta, Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea.
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Immediate establishment of a Coast-Guard Mechanism to be known as Nigeria Coast and Boarder Guards (NCBG) that collapses all government-private security arrangements into a standby supportive maritime and borderline security mechanism against organized crime especially crude oil theft and illegal bunkering while also working to mitigate the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, among others, to strengthen homeland security efforts.
The communique further commended President Bola Tinubu for taking steps within his first 100 days in office to implement aspects of the communiqué through the approval for the review of the proposal for possible integration of artisanal refinery operations into the national economy. Which is the doctrine of PACORDI proposed by YEAC-Nigeria through the Committee headed by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Ambassador Gabriel T. Aduda.
