Modular refineries in Niger Delta will end organised crimes in region, Gulf of Guinea

The Federal government has been tasked to make real all its promises to the youths and people of the Niger Delta to help mitigate organized crime in the region and the Gulf of Guinea by issuing the eighteen (18) Modular refinery licenses already approved for the Niger Delta states.

Executive Director, Youths and Environmental Advocacy Center (YEAC-NIGERIA) Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface made the call during a National Conference and Official Lunch of Network on Organized Crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea (NOCINAG) sponsored by Global Initiative Against Organized Crime and Resilience Fund.

According to Fyneface, Issuing the 18 Modular refinery licenses already approved for Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Cross River, Edo, and Rivers states, including Ondo, Abia, and Imo states where pipeline vandalism, artisanal refining, and associated environmental pollution is also experienced would mitigate the ongoing organized crime.

“Organized crime has no generally accepted definition but can be described as a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activities, most commonly for profit. Its continuing existence is maintained through the corruption of public officials and the use of intimidation, threats, or forces to protect its operations.

“Nigeria is one of the countries in the Gulf of Guinea facing challenges associated with domestic and transnational organized crimes. These organized crimes manifest in the form of pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refining, illegal bunkering, kidnapping, banditry, insurgency, racketeering, cybercrimes (popularly called Yahoo-Yahoo), drugs/human trafficking, arms smuggling, sea pirates, Illegal unreported and unregulated Fishing (IUUF) in the Gulf of Guinea, other fraudulent activities and environmental crimes including illegal logging.

“The cartels of criminal actors involved in this operate illegal governance structures and networks in both governable and ungoverned spaces across borders to perpetuate their local, national and transnational organized crimes, violate human rights and profit at great public expense and denting national images in the Gulf of Guinea.

“Sadly, these organized criminals are aided, abetted, and supported by some of our security operatives posted to fight and mitigate the same organized crime.

“Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria), under my leadership as the Executive Director, is worried about the activities of organized crime in our communities and their impacts on the local indigenous peoples and the society at large.

“Thus, we have focused more attention on advocacy and activities aimed at proffering solutions and mitigating organized crimes, its impacts on the people and transiting youths involved, especially those engaged in the organized crime of pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refining and associated environmental pollution including soot to illegal ventures as alternative livelihood opportunities.

“Government should establish Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative (PACORDI) for illegal artisanal refiners in the Niger Delta the same way it established Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMI) for illegal gold miners in parts of the north and western Nigeria.

He further called on the government, security agencies, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Gulf of Guinea Commission and all Nigerians to work effectively in fighting organized crime in the country.

“The security operatives posted to the Niger Delta should stop getting involved, aiding and abetting pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, illegal bunkering, and artisanal refining that destroys our environment. The Ministry of Transportation, the Presidential Amnesty Programme and other relevant Ministries, departments and agencies of government to implement in full the communiqué issued at the end of the Global Maritime Security Conference in Abuja in 2019.

“The Gulf of Guinea Commission should strengthen its efforts in coordinating member states and synergize with non-state actors, especially under the auspices of the Network on Organized Crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea (NOCINAG) in the fight against organized crime in the region.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria should reach out to its counterparts in the Gulf of Guinea and immediately establish a ‘Taskforce Against Organized Crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea (TAOCING)’ and call on every Nigerian to come, let work together and fight against organized crime in our communities, Niger Delta, Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea”.

In his keynote presentation titled: “Combating Organised Crime in the Gulf of Guinea, Security and Development”, Head Department of Political and Administrative Studies, University of Port Harcourt, Professor Fidelis Allen, emphasized the urgent need for the policy community to act more decisively and commit itself to combat organized crime due to its scale, transnational nature, low resilience of countries, the vulnerability of innocent people, and the impact it has on general security and development.

He further explained that it is a matter of urgency for more international and regional attention to be paid to organized crime. He was noting that In 2013, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Economic Community of East African States, and the Gulf of Guinea Commission, after an extraordinary conference, created the Younde Maritime Security Framework.

“The United Nations, Interpol, the European Union, and the G7 friends of the region have also developed intervention strategies; the French have been present in the Gulf of Guinea since the 1990s. Other countries, including Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain, the UK, Spain, and the United States, have also responded to threats posed by organized crime, and there is no doubt that these efforts have had a positive impact on the security situation in the country”.

On his part, Comptroller Revenue Customs Zonal Office Zone C, Comptroller Sunday Opakanmi, called for a more traditional approach to crime fighting.

“All perpetrators of crime are not criminals; they become criminals when caught and arrested. There is this belief that some people have the right to commit crime; today crime is gaining wider and wider acceptance to the extent that when you want to enforce the law, your life will be in danger.

“We only see oil theft in Jerrican what about the ones stolen in big ships and barges? It will take good money to fight crime, credible intelligence, deploying of technology; if we do not catch these criminals, how can we prosecute them”.