Stakeholders have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to issue the 18 modular refinery licenses already approved for Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Cross River, Edo and Rivers states, before leaving office in May, as a way of mitigating organized crimes in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea.
Also, the stakeholders charged the Federal Government to 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.
The Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, Mr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, urged the federal Government to make real all its promises to the youths and people of the Niger Delta that can help mitigate organized crimes in the Gulf of Guinea.
Fyneface said instead of pipeline surveillance contracts, the government should provide alternative livelihood opportunities for those displaced by the war against artisanal refining, regretting that organised crime thrives since security agencies who are supposed to stop it, are involved, aiding, abetting and refusing to do their job.
“Issue the 18 Modular refinery licenses already approved for Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Cross River, Edo and Rivers states. I hereby reiterate the call for Ondo, Abia, and Imo States where pipeline vandalism, artisanal refining and associated environmental pollution is also on-going to be included among the states to be issued three modular refinery licenses each to mitigate the on-going organized crime.
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“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.
“I call on security operatives posted to the Niger Delta to stop getting involved, aiding and abetting pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, illegal bunkering and artisanal refining that destroys our environment.
“I call on Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), 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.
“I call on the Gulf of Guinea Commission to strengthen its efforts in the coordination of member states and synergizing with non-state actors especially under the auspices of Network on Organized Crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea (NOCINAG) in the fight against organized crime in the region.
“I call on the Federal Government of Nigeria to 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)”
