Latest News
Navy Seeks Judicial Reforms To Speed Prosecution Of Crude Oil Theft Cases
The Flag Officer Commanding (FoC), Eastern Naval Command (ENC), Rear Admiral Chiedozie Okehie, has stressed the need to carry out judicial reforms that would enable accelerated prosecution of suspects arrested for engaging in crude oil theft.
He made this call just as he narrated in details how officers and men caught and arrested a Sao Tome and Principe-flagged oil tanker, MT FILIA, suspected to have stolen about 650 metric tonnes of crude oil worth over N660 million.
The FoC also stated that the law reforms should be such that any vessel arrested for crude oil theft is prosecuted adequately so they don’t escape the long arms of the law.
Okehie made the call yesterday in Calabar, Cross River State, shortly after they paraded a foreign-flagged vessel, MT Filia, arrested for alleged crude oil theft within the one of the offshore platforms located within the Nigerian maritime territory.
The FoC said at the point of arrest, 12 Nigerian crew members were aboard the arrested vessel.
Speaking specifically on the import of the arrest of MT Filia, the FoC said: “The vessel is foreign-flagged but crewed by Nigerians, demonstrating the reach of these criminal networks.”
He said prolonged trial of suspects arrested for alleged crude oil theft undermines the efforts of Nigerian Navy to ensure speedy trial and possible conviction, thereby showing the right signal that the Navy would never condone any acts of sabotage to the nation’s maritime economy, and security.
Okehie said significant successes have been made under the Chief of Naval Staff’s, Operation Delta Sentinel, but lamented that their biggest challenge was the delay in the prosecution of arrested suspects.
He decried the long stay of seized vessels in custody due to slow court processes, disclosing that a vessel that was arrested in 2022 was still undergoing trial.
“The prolonged judicial process places enormous administrative and financial burdens on the Navy because we are responsible for maintaining these vessels while the cases continue. We need a faster legal process,” he said.
Okehie who explained the difference between piracy, and sea robbery said Nigeria has not recorded incident of piracy for several years due to the unrelenting efforts and vigilance of the Navy.
“There is one thing to launch an operation, and another thing to implement it. What we have today is the strategic, operational and tactical will to ensure the success of Operation Delta Sentinel,” Okehie said.
The FoC commended officers and men of the ENC for their integrity and resilience in the discharge of their duties, saying, crude oil theft was “an ecosystem involving many players.”
“Our men have shown a sense of purpose, integrity and transparency. We are deploying intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, alongside available platforms, to arrest those involved,” he added.
In a related development, the ECN has narrated how officers and men caught and arrested a Sao Tome and Principe-flagged oil tanker, MT FILIA, suspected to have stolen about 650 metric tonnes of crude oil worth over N660 million.
Narrating the incident to journalists at the NNS Victory, Calabar, yesterday, the Command Operations Officer, COO, Commodore Abubakar Umar, disclosed that the arrest was intelligence-driven.
“Acting on credible intelligence drive from surveillance asset, the Nigerian Navy in the ENC on 23 July, 26 arrested an oil product tanker MT FILIA, IMO No. 8662684, sailing under the flag of São Tomé and Príncipe, for alleged involvement in crude oil theft activities at Utue Offshore Oil Terminals located at Akwa Ibom State,” Umar said.
He explained that the vessel, with 12 Nigerian crew members on board, had loitered within the vicinity of the terminals for over seven days, awaiting an opportunity to access the crude oil jackets.
Umar said the vessel and the crew members not knowing that they were on surveillance eventually moved to one of the jackets, and began illegal loading of crude oil.
Related
