From Mike Tayese, Yenagoa

A supposedly peaceful protest by youths of Sangana community in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa state turned sorrowful following the shooting at a boat conveying the protesters to an oilfield operated by Conoil in the area.

It was learnt that Ikiowori Benson, one youth, hit by the gunshot lost his life, while two persons in the team of community youths were still missing and others critically injured after the incident reportedly happened on Monday.

Armed security personnel attached to the offshore facility christened “Antie Julie”, within 0ML 59 operated by Conoil, opened fire on the youths when they approached the facility to demand the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Conoil and Sangana.

Reacting to the incident, Ambrose Timipre-Ayah, the youth leader of Sangana said that he and 10 other youths from the community approached the Conoil facility unarmed, with the sole aim of registering their displeasure with the company.

He said he was shocked when the armed security operatives opened fire on them, killing one person instantly. He said two persons were missing and two others receiving treatment at Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa.

Also, Rueben Preboye, the Community Development Committee (CDC) Chairman of Sangana, noted that while Conoil has been operating in the community for about 25 years, the company has been delaying the implementation of the MoU.

According to him, the MoU lasts for three years subject to renewal, noting that the 2013, 2016, 2019 and 2022 MoUs have not been implemented and accumulated over 300million naira and 420-million-naira worth of projects.

The Sangana CDC chairman said he had the same issue with Conoil when he was the youth leader of the community in 2010.

However, when contacted, Mr. Richard Adebayo, the Community Relations Manager of Conoil declined to comment on the incident.

The spokesman of the joint military force deployed to protect  facilities in the Niger Delta, Major Adenegan Ojo could not be reached by telephone and has yet to respond to sms requesting reaction.

It will be recalled that on Oct 31, 2021, a gas leak from a rig Adriatic-1 within the oilfield contaminated the environment in the community and attracted regulatory sanctions by the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency

The Defence Headquarters says troops of Operation Delta Safe (OPDS) have destroyed 47 illegal refining sites, and apprehended 65 suspected oil thieves and other criminals in the last two weeks.

The Director, Defence Media Operation, Maj.-Gen. Musa Danmadami, said this on Thursday in Abuja at the bi-weekly news conference on the operations of the armed forces.

Danmadami said the troops had sustained the tempo in the war against oil theft, illegal refineries and other criminal activities through aggressive raid, patrol as well as clearance operations amongst others.

He said the troops recovered 186,000 litres of crude oil, 42,750 litres of Automotive Gas Oil, 4,500 litres of Premium Motor Spirit and 200 litres Dual Purpose Kerosine.

The spokesman said that 250 storage tanks, 220 ovens, 32 dugout pits, 31 wooden boats, one gas welding cylinder, and one pocking gas were recovered.

Others are two gas burners, two gas gauge, two adjustable spanners, one pumping machine and four outboards engines.

Danmadami said the troops also recovered 300 ammunitions, 15 AK47 magazines, 211 mobile phones, three vehicles, 100 wraps of suspected cannabis sativa, three and four pinches among others.

He said the troops had on May 18, raided a suspected criminals house at Ibaa community in Ahoada West Local Government Area of Rivers.

“All recovered items and apprehended suspected criminals have been handed over to the relevant authority for further action.

“Equally, it is worthy to mention that a total of N604.4 million was denied the oil thieves.

“The air component on May 18, conducted air interdiction operation at Krakrama active with illegal refining activities.

“Accordingly, the location was struck, with several illegal refined products and equipment destroyed in the air strike,” he said.

In the South East, Danmadami said the troops of Operation UDO KA continued to clamp down on the Indigenous People of Biafra, Eastern Security Network terrorist and other criminalities in the zone.

He said the troops neutralised five terrorists and apprehended nine suspects, as well as recovered several arms, ammunition and other items during the period.

In the South West, he said the troops of Operation AWATSE apprehended 26 suspected criminals and recovered one locally made pistol, three cartridges, 280gm of tramadol and two bottles of codeine. (NAN)

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has lauded the political will and sincerity of purpose demonstrated by President Bola Tinubu in removing fuel subsidy.

A statement from NEITI House, Abuja on Tuesday, described the move as a positive move by the administration to decisively implement the findings and recommendations contained in the NEITI reports.

The statement, signed by Mrs Obiageli Onuorah, the Deputy Director/Head Communications and Stakeholders Management, said bold step was required to block leakages, grow revenues and advance the ongoing reforms in the oil, gas and mining industries.

President Bola Tinubu, in his inaugural speech on Monday, said the fuel subsidy regime had ended with the commencement of his administration.

Onuorah recalled that its recommendations for the removal of fuel subsidies have remained a persistent request since 2006 given the agency’s concerns about the huge financial burden that the subsidy regime imposed on the growth of the Nigerian economy over the years.

She explained that from the NEITI reports, between 2005 and 2021, the country spent $74.39 billion which translated to N13.69 trillion on subsidy.

According to the NEITI report, a breakdown of these figures showed that in 2005, the government paid $2.6 billion dollars (N351 billion) as subsidy. In 2006 and 2007, it paid $1.99 billion and $2.18 billion (N257 billion and N272 billion) respectively.

The report further pointed out that subsidy payments more than doubled in 2008 and 2010 and witnessed the highest increase ever in 2011 to $13.52 billion (N2.11 trillion).

She said a sharp decline was witnessed in the years 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 when it dropped to $3.34 billion (N654 billion) in 2012.

Onuorah said the decline in subsidy expenditure continued in 2016 and 2017 to as low as  $473 million dollars (N154 billion) in 2017.

“The reduction was short-lived as the payments skyrocketed to over $3.88 billion (N1.19 trillion) in 2018 and 2021 to $3.58 billion (N1.43 trillion).

“By these figures, Nigeria expended an average of N805.7 billion annually, N67.1 billion monthly or N2.2 billion daily,” she said.

She said the NEITI data also showed that the amount expended on subsidies from 2005 to 2021 was equivalent to the entire budget for health, education, agriculture and defence in the last five years.

Onuorah added the sum equals the capital expenditure for 10 years between 2011 to 2020.

The deputy director explained that it was during this time (2011) that fuel subsidies dwarfed allocations to all critical areas of the economy.

“NEITI ‘s persistent calls for the removal of petroleum subsidies were informed by the fact that the ways of funding the expenditure over these years relied more on federation accounts funds, the Federal Government and sometimes from external borrowing with negative consequences on government overall revenue profiles.

“NEITI was also concerned that the consequences of funding subsidies have resulted in poor development of the downstream sector, declining GDP growth, rise in product theft, pipeline vandalism, environmental pollution and undue pressure on foreign exchange.

“Other challenges imposed on the economy were naira depreciation, low employment generation, the declining balance of payments and worsening national debt,” she said.

Onuorah said in a policy advisory released by NEITI in late 2022 to drive home the urgency to remove subsidy and resubmitted earlier in the year 2023, NEITI recommended eight steps to manage subsidy removal.

She listed the steps to include the urgency to strengthen the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) as a whole and not in parts.

NEITI also underlined the importance of unveiling the implementation of people-oriented welfare programmes to provide relief for the poor and vulnerable and advised on priority attention to be paid to the rehabilitation of the nation’s four refineries currently ongoing.

On other policy considerations, she said government should commission a special report on actual PMS consumption in Nigeria, enforce stringent sanctions for criminal activities in the sector and conduct appropriate stakeholders’ consultations, engagements and enlightenment. (NAN)