ALL ABOUT STOLEN CRUDE...Things you would never have known. BY ENA OFUGARA
I have heard some of the dumbest statements about crude oil theft from some top social critics who have never taken the time to read up or understand oil theft in the Niger Delta of Nigeria or globally. I do not know if maybe because there is little material available that deeply explains the goings-on
I have found that like me when I watch football and my team is losing, even if it is to a much better-prepared, organized and financially savvy team, I scream at my team's coach who is not even the goalkeeper that allowed in a goal my late grandma would have caught with her arthritis. NO! I still scream "he no sabi coach. the coach yeye. sack am". So also have many Nigerians been at daggers-drawn with the administration of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, many accusing him of either being indolent in the fight to stop oil theft, complicity in or in fact being the very thief of the crude. The only thing I have not heard is that the President's black colour/complexion is the crude that poured on him on one of the crude oil stealing missions
The most popular accusation is that he is letting "his people" of the Niger Delta steal the crude as a form of "settlement"
This article sets to give an insight into the oil theft business....what has never been in print (yes yes, I feel the coming applause...after all e no easy to carry una enter the creeks and dangerous yet lucrative business of oil theft.)
Now to avoid a case of slander and libel, most of the things I will say of people, please add "alleged" as I cannot prove anyone's involvement. What I here write, it is your choice to accept it or throw it away as baseless.
The brilliant ones amongst us will see the plausibility of the points and realize that even if it is unable to stand up in court, yet this is the true happening in the oil-rich Niger Delta and the new millionaires it spouts daily while the environment and peoples suffer.
Okay, we begin.
Oil, arms and cocaine are the three biggest international businesses of questionable nature. Blood diamond is a distant fourth.
The moneys that derive from these ventures make ending these businesses a very daunting if not impossible task.
Let us take a look at America, they spend the most money on securing their borders. They have the Coast Guards, Marines, FBI, CIA, and the police. Coca plants, from which you process cocaine do not grow in America. Yet if you stand back at many metro stations and street corners, and watch well, I am sure you will find someone you can buy cocaine or crack or at the ;least, marijuana from.
Now even if cocaine comes in small parcels, marijuana is very bulky and yet all of them find their way through the security apparatuses to even high schools and colleges...without fail.
Now why is this so? Why is almighty America that is able to detect those who try to harm the country, that spies on all the presidents of the world, that knows what you ate for dinner and if you were with your girlfriend while your wife was pregnant, why are they losing the "war on drugs"?
The same reason Nigeria will almost always be unable to stop oil theft....THE STAKES ARE TOO HIGH. TOO MUCH MONEY TO BE MADE. TYPE OF MONEY YOU SHOOT YOUR MOTHER OVER AND FEEL NO REGRET... AS YOU DO A HUGE BURIAL FOR HER....WITH THE PROCEEDS FROM THE DEALS.
Okay, a very zealous president decides to fight the oil theft. He gets some solid no-nonsense policemen and soldiers from the North and sends them to the Niger Delta with the instructions "torpedo any vessel with stolen oil"
. The Hausa man is determined to do just that as he waves his three wives and ten children goodbye, asking Allah to watch over them for him.
He arrives Warri and gets on the boat with fellow officers as they patrol the waters.
He finds however that firstly, the creeks are not mapped as the country's leaders never envisaged they would ever develop that area. It was only good for draining the oil and not mapping it so as to get medical help or food etc to the denizens of the creeks. So even the soldiers rely on the Ijaw Private to navigate the boat for them.
He also finds that all eyes are on him as they patrol and the conversations...many of which is in Hausa as his townsman interprets what the Yoruba superior officer is saying to him. They are asking him about his family and if he wants the best life for them and he of course says he does.
And then they see the big vessel in the distance and they approach with speed. He gets his rifle ready and prays to Allah to protect him as he serves his country. Their patrol boat stops the vessel and he expects gunfire as he sees a very well armed boat of locals with leaves and red pieces of cloth around their arms, obviously voodoo as they clutch AK47s and SMGs ....superior guns to his.
He is somewhat afraid and wonders if they can win this battle should these people refuse to surrender. His thoughts immediately go to his 3 wives and even the fourth he is preparing to marry.
And then what happens next amazes him. The superior officer boards the vessel, returns with a huge suitcase and some expensive cigars and he is all smiles as the locals scream "officer! All correct sir" and let a few gunshots into the air as they and the oil vessel recede into the distance approaching international waters.
He is taken aback. He looks and sees eyes now furtively turned away from him. There and then the officer hands each of the JTF (joint task force) members a stack of money and hands him his.
This goes against everything he was taught in the mosque and in the army. But as he refuses to stretch out his hand, he hears a gun rooster behind him and there and then he knows the choices before him....become rich or die poor...right here right now.
I have heard some of the dumbest statements about crude oil theft from some top social critics who have never taken the time to read up or understand oil theft in the Niger Delta of Nigeria or globally. I do not know if maybe because there is little material available that deeply explains the goings-on
I have found that like me when I watch football and my team is losing, even if it is to a much better-prepared, organized and financially savvy team, I scream at my team's coach who is not even the goalkeeper that allowed in a goal my late grandma would have caught with her arthritis. NO! I still scream "he no sabi coach. the coach yeye. sack am". So also have many Nigerians been at daggers-drawn with the administration of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, many accusing him of either being indolent in the fight to stop oil theft, complicity in or in fact being the very thief of the crude. The only thing I have not heard is that the President's black colour/complexion is the crude that poured on him on one of the crude oil stealing missions
The most popular accusation is that he is letting "his people" of the Niger Delta steal the crude as a form of "settlement"
This article sets to give an insight into the oil theft business....what has never been in print (yes yes, I feel the coming applause...after all e no easy to carry una enter the creeks and dangerous yet lucrative business of oil theft.)
Now to avoid a case of slander and libel, most of the things I will say of people, please add "alleged" as I cannot prove anyone's involvement. What I here write, it is your choice to accept it or throw it away as baseless.
The brilliant ones amongst us will see the plausibility of the points and realize that even if it is unable to stand up in court, yet this is the true happening in the oil-rich Niger Delta and the new millionaires it spouts daily while the environment and peoples suffer.
Okay, we begin.
Oil, arms and cocaine are the three biggest international businesses of questionable nature. Blood diamond is a distant fourth.
The moneys that derive from these ventures make ending these businesses a very daunting if not impossible task.
Let us take a look at America, they spend the most money on securing their borders. They have the Coast Guards, Marines, FBI, CIA, and the police. Coca plants, from which you process cocaine do not grow in America. Yet if you stand back at many metro stations and street corners, and watch well, I am sure you will find someone you can buy cocaine or crack or at the ;least, marijuana from.
Now even if cocaine comes in small parcels, marijuana is very bulky and yet all of them find their way through the security apparatuses to even high schools and colleges...without fail.
Now why is this so? Why is almighty America that is able to detect those who try to harm the country, that spies on all the presidents of the world, that knows what you ate for dinner and if you were with your girlfriend while your wife was pregnant, why are they losing the "war on drugs"?
The same reason Nigeria will almost always be unable to stop oil theft....THE STAKES ARE TOO HIGH. TOO MUCH MONEY TO BE MADE. TYPE OF MONEY YOU SHOOT YOUR MOTHER OVER AND FEEL NO REGRET... AS YOU DO A HUGE BURIAL FOR HER....WITH THE PROCEEDS FROM THE DEALS.
Okay, a very zealous president decides to fight the oil theft. He gets some solid no-nonsense policemen and soldiers from the North and sends them to the Niger Delta with the instructions "torpedo any vessel with stolen oil"
. The Hausa man is determined to do just that as he waves his three wives and ten children goodbye, asking Allah to watch over them for him.
He arrives Warri and gets on the boat with fellow officers as they patrol the waters.
He finds however that firstly, the creeks are not mapped as the country's leaders never envisaged they would ever develop that area. It was only good for draining the oil and not mapping it so as to get medical help or food etc to the denizens of the creeks. So even the soldiers rely on the Ijaw Private to navigate the boat for them.
He also finds that all eyes are on him as they patrol and the conversations...many of which is in Hausa as his townsman interprets what the Yoruba superior officer is saying to him. They are asking him about his family and if he wants the best life for them and he of course says he does.
And then they see the big vessel in the distance and they approach with speed. He gets his rifle ready and prays to Allah to protect him as he serves his country. Their patrol boat stops the vessel and he expects gunfire as he sees a very well armed boat of locals with leaves and red pieces of cloth around their arms, obviously voodoo as they clutch AK47s and SMGs ....superior guns to his.
He is somewhat afraid and wonders if they can win this battle should these people refuse to surrender. His thoughts immediately go to his 3 wives and even the fourth he is preparing to marry.
And then what happens next amazes him. The superior officer boards the vessel, returns with a huge suitcase and some expensive cigars and he is all smiles as the locals scream "officer! All correct sir" and let a few gunshots into the air as they and the oil vessel recede into the distance approaching international waters.
He is taken aback. He looks and sees eyes now furtively turned away from him. There and then the officer hands each of the JTF (joint task force) members a stack of money and hands him his.
This goes against everything he was taught in the mosque and in the army. But as he refuses to stretch out his hand, he hears a gun rooster behind him and there and then he knows the choices before him....become rich or die poor...right here right now.
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