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President Bola Tinubu on Monday commended Tantita Security Services Limited and other security agencies for combating oil theft and hailed their collaborative efforts that is already yielding results.
Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Christopher Musa, gave the commendation on behalf of the President while inspecting the impounded MT. Kali and paraded suspects by Tantita and other security agencies at Oporoza in Delta State.
The CDS flanked by top officials of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and top military brass promised to deal ruthlessly with oil thieves and their sponsors.
He noted that the arrested vessel will be destroyed in line with standard practice to serve as deterrent to others.
Musa urged the media to stop creating disaffection between government and private security agencies working together to achieve better results.
He said: โWe are here based on the report of the arrest of this ship, and I think itโs a major achievement.
It shows that weโre committed in ensuring that we stop this criminality within the maritime environment.
โThis is a collaborative effort, and it will continue to collaborate with the NNPC, the others, private security agencies, the main federal government agencies are also working together.
I donโt want a situation where we create the impression as if thereโs enmity between this group and that group.
โWeโre working for the same team, weโre all Nigerians, this is our country.
Whatever is happening here is an act of criminality that must be stopped by all means. So, I want to make it very clear that all Nigerians must put hands on deck to ensure that we stop these acts.
โThe country is bleeding.
We need all the funds we need so that this country can grow and develop, and it is just by stopping these criminals like this, that will make that very possible.
โSo why weโre here, is to come and see to identify them. The Chief of Defence Intelligence is going to go straight into investigation as to who is involved, what was taken, who sent them, and this is because we want to catch the perpetrators.
โThese ones are just the ground troops that are being used, the main actors are behind, and I want to use this opportunity to warn all those that donโt want to stop this, that enough is enough.
โThe Armed Forces, the security agencies, the communities, private security agencies, wherever they are, they are contracted as long as theyโre contracted by the federal government, weโre going to work together as a team.
โThereโs not going to be any competition between us, and please, the media should stop making it look as if thereโs a fight, there is no fight.
โWhatever arrest that has been done, it is done collaboratively, and weโre going to continue to do that. And so that is very important.
โWeโre happy that these have been arrested. Weโre going to take it off from here, and weโre going to do more, because, henceforth, weโre going to enhance our collaboration and our jointness in ensuring that we check this menace.
โNigeria must grow, and individuals cannot hold us to ransom. There are very few individuals who are making profit from this.
And they donโt want to stop because I would have expected that by now, from all the actions have been taken to discourage people from doing it.
But you can see that people are still hell-bent to steal our crude for their own selfish gains, and that must stop.
โSo, I want to thank you for this opportunity that weโre here. And to make it very clear that we are all working together as a team.
โWe will enhance this capacity, and this year, we will ensure that Nigeria oil production goes up, as much as possible, so that we can all benefit as Nigerians.
โThe crude inside the vessel will going to be treated as standard operating procedure, including the ship.
โI know those ships that are very new will not want to commit crime. They want to go look for those ones that are almost dead. So that if they succeed, they have gained and if they lose it, they donโt lose anything. This will follow the standard operating procedure,โ he stated.
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