How we made oil bunkering unprofitable for vandals- Preye Oseke

By Emem Idio
IGBOMOTURU—CHAIRMAN of    the Oil and Gas Task Force, Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, Bayelsa State, the most notorious crude oil stealing neighbourhood in the state, Mr. Preye Oseke, said the protection outfit has made oil bunkering a loss-making venture for oil thieves and illegal refinery operators in the local government.

File: The suspected pipeline vandals and exhibits

Consequently, Oseke, who spoke assuredly to Niger-Delta Voice, said the economic saboteurs were relocating from southern Ijaw.
According to him,  “Sometime in 2013, it was identified that that there was so much of illegal oil bunkering activities in southern Ijaw local government area and it got to the point where even the multinational oil companies contemplated packing out and shutting down their operations because their production got as low as one to few thousand barrels per day, barely enough to sustain their operations.”
Strategic approach
He said, “It was on this premise that the chairman of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Chief Remember Ogbe on assumption of office, keyed into Governor Seriake Dickson’s zero tolerance to criminality and decided that something must be done to ensure that oil bunkering activities are dealt with in the local government.”
“Community leaders were consulted, various approaches were explored, town hall engagements with community leaders and even the bunkerers themselves were held. This is what gave birth to the Southern Ijaw Oil and Gas Task Force of which a by-law was passed by the legislative arm of the council. “The mandate of the task force is to work in synergy with all the security agencies; Joint Task Force, JTF, Navy, and Civil Defence Corps, Police and other well-meaning community leaders to ensure that bunkering activities are dealt with,” he added.
According to him, “ Before the commencement of our operations, we had series of engagement meetings with all the security agencies, everybody was brought on board because the task force members as civilians are not expected to carry arms and security cover is very critical. “I must tell you that it has been very challenging and without the support of the security agencies the results that are evident today would not be there, and not forgetting the commitment of the task force members, it has been results all the way.”
Clipping the wings of oil bunkerers
Preye noted, “If you look at the bunkering chain, the man at the lowest level of that chain is the community man and unfortunately he is the one that gets the lesser part of the proceeds. Before we started this anti-bunkering crusade, a drum of locally refined diesel was being sold for six thousand, that is the man who breaks the pipes and refines it, sells the product for N6,000 to the middle man, who in turn resells it to the vessels for between N22, 000 to N25,000.
The community man who breaks the pipe, his environment is degraded, the processes in which he does the refining is also hazardous to his own health.” “He employs a team of youths to join him in the refining and he pays them out of the N6, 000.
Of course, there are security men all around and so he also does some security settlement, and at the end of the day, the man goes home with barely N1,000 – N2,000 for a drum of diesel while the middleman who comes to buy from him and is not even from his community or local government and does not participate or suffer any kind of risk and negative effect, makes a gain of N19, 000 for a drum. Even in that criminality, there is capital flight.
“We started from a low level until it goes to the point where bunkering products are no longer seen all around the state; before now you can walk to any of the waterfront and buy a drum of diesel for  between N7,000 to N10,000, but today,    for you to get a drum of diesel,    you should be talking about between N30, 000 to N45,000, that is to tell you that it is difficult for bunkering activities to thrive now.
“Of course, there will always be some deviants; persons who are unrepentant, and because of that we still see pockets of bunkering activities. But the results are evident because production level as registered by the multinationals has increased tremendously from about 10 per cent to about 95 per cent. If crude oil theft has been reduced to the barest minimum, I think we can stand tall to say that the whole essence of the task force has been achieved,” he explained.
Killing of 2 cops/attack on chairman’s country home
Oseke pointed out, “The chairman has been dogged in the fight and that was why his country- home was attacked and two policemen killed. That is the sacrifice of leadership; this would not have happened if we were not involved in anti-bunkering activity. But we are not deterred because when you are trying to make change in the society, you should expect opposition and that is evident in events that have played out.”
“We thank our father the state governor for the foundation of what we have achieved. We cannot thank him enough for saving our environment and our youths because the proceeds from bunkering was been used for the procurement of light and small arms and drugs.  “There was serious drug addiction in our communities, even minor family disputes were been resolved with the carrying of guns because there was proliferation of light and small arms in our communities and the stoppage of bunkering has to a great extent reduced criminality,” he added.
The task force boss asserted, “Not forgetting the very fundamental employment opportunities were created for our teeming youths of our area who had no jobs. Some were using bunkering as a source  of livelihood, but when we brought them into the taskforce to be part of the process of halting the activities of which they were involved, things changed.
Employment opportunities
“This is first time in the history of Southern Ijaw that over 1,000 youths receive some allowance, and have full employment and it is been going on for over a year since May 2013. Apart from fighting illegal oil bunkering, we are also using it as a platform to create jobs for our teeming youths and the results are evident as it has helped our national economy.
“Efforts have been made using various platforms to enlighten and educate our youths, we have radio and television jingles and we also go to the flashpoint communities where oil bunkering is very prevalent like Igbomotoru community, which before now was notorious for these activities, to enlighten our youths on the negative impact of oil bunkering activities. This is the gospel we are preaching in our local communities,” he said.
His words, “When we came on board, during the engagement meetings, so many reasons were put forward by community leaders on why bunkering is on the high side and one of the major reasons that was identified was unemployment. Unemployment is a social problem, even in the most developed countries, we have unemployment. No government can provide full employment to all its entire citizenry not even in the most developed nations.”