Labour Decries FG’s Inability to Curb Crude Oil Theft, Pipeline Vandalism

By Linda Eroke

The organised labour has expressed concern over the inability of the federal government and its security agencies to address the menace of crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism, which it said is now a well-established industry in the country.

Chairman, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Rivers State Council, Mr. Chika Onuegbu, who made this known, lamented that the combined effect of oil theft, pipeline vandalism and insecurity is forcing the multinational oil companies to divest from the Niger Delta thereby throwing thousands of Nigerians into the already saturated labour market.

He noted that by government’s own admission, more than 10 percent of the country’s total crude oil production is stolen every day adding that this is almost double the total production of Ghana.

“The nation therefore loses between $6 billion yearly to crude oil theft and another N165 billion to theft of refined products. As if this is not enough, there is also the brazen vandalism of pipelines which has adversely affected the supply of crude to the refineries resulting in low or no output from our four refineries.

"In addition, the general insecurity of lives and property in the country has among other things adversely impacted on the oil and gas industry,” he explained.

He added that revelations by the lawmakers had shown that the heinous act is being perpetrated by oil thieves in collaboration with highly placed individuals in the country.

“Hardly does a day pass without stories of how Nigerian crude oil is brazenly stolen by oil thieves assisted by their collaborators in high places. The revelations at the various probes by the National Assembly are heart-breaking as billions of Naira (and now trillions of Naira) meant for the improvement in the welfare and condition of living of ordinary Nigerians are brazenly stolen by those who they are entrusted in their care.

“All these are examples of violence against the people of Nigeria. The killings and maiming of Nigerians, whether by Boko Haram, militants, cult groups, kidnappers, armed robbers, misguided youths, political thugs and other forms of societal vices by deviant groups under whatever guise, are all examples of direct violence”, he said.

Speaking further, he decried federal government’s insensitivity towards honouring the agreement reached early this year with the unions in the oil sector over the planned sale of the nation’s refineries.

It accused government of deliberately delaying the implementation of agreement in order to lay the ground for its privatisation agenda.

The TUC boss alleged that ”government wants to deliberately ensure that the refineries are unable to produce in order to privatise them."

Onuegbu, who is also the Industrial Relations Officer of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), argued that much of the gains ascribed to privatisation by the proponents of the policy are actually gains from other reforms.

“Government blinded by its privatisation glaucoma, fails to see that much of the gains ascribed to privatization by the proponents of the policy are actually gains from other reforms. For instance, the government did not privatize NITEL for MTN, Econet (now Airtel) etc. to sprout and grow. They simply created the enabling environment and the GSM market blossomed,” he said.

On this note, he appealed to government to honour the agreement signed with the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and PENGASSAN in January 2014 to avoid any unnecessary industrial crises in the nation’s oil and gas sector.