A pragmatic offensive against illegal bunkering
ON Wednesday, January 13, 2021, Governor Nyesom Wike embarked on fact- finding assessment tour of two Local Government Areas; Ikwerre and Emuoha LGAS, to see for himself, some of the locations where the operators of the infamous illegal refineries tormenting the health and well being of Rivers people with black soot for years now, have commandeered as their operational bases.
The revelations of that tour, have not only been mind boggling in terms of the assemblage of sophisticated equipment and the operational dynamics of the illegal refineries, but sadly in the cummulative impact and overall long term negative implications of the environmental, health and economic damages their continuous operations have inflicted and would continue to inflict on the people.
Governor Wike’s pragmatic, on the spot assessment tour to the two Local Government Areas, to dare the lions of illegal refineries in their own dens, was sequel to his radically precise 2022 New year message to Rivers people, in which he unequivocally read the riot act to sponsors and operators of Illegal refineries in the State.
He not only dropped the gauntlet by naming some of those behind the illegal operations, he boldly declared 19 persons wanted, urged others who know themselves to report to security agencies on their own volition and discretion.
Governor Wike equally directed all Local Government Chairmen and community leaders, to locate, identify such sites and report all those behind all illegal bunkering and crude oil refining sites in their localities for prosecution.
And as a follow up to his trip through the track roads into the forest of Ogbodo community in Ikwerre Local Government Area and the forest of Ibaa community in Emohua LGA to uncover the illegal refining sites, Governor. Wike has now issued a 48- hour ultimatum to the 23 Local Government Chairmen to provide a comprehensive list of illegal refineries and their operators within their jurisdiction.
The Rivers Governor who gave the ultimatum at a meeting with the council chairmen and heads of the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air force, Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Police, the Directorate of State Service and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps at Government House on Friday, January 14, challenged the council chairmen to prove that they are not complicit in the dangerous business that has continued to threaten the health of Rivers people and the national economy.
While further demanding the redeployment of the DPO and NSCDC officers implicated in illegal refinery activities, the Governor stated unequivocally that as a responsible government, it will be unwise for them to fold their hands and do nothing to safeguard residents of the state from the death that is forced upon them by criminally minded operators of artisanal refineries.
Governor Wike’s pragmatic offensive against illegal refineries had been driven by his deep worry and concern over the environmental pollution caused by dangerous black soot, which had practically covered the stratosphere of major parts of Rivers State and had become even more life threatening with the arrival of the Omicron Delta Covid19 variant, to compound the already menacing and precarious respiratory health challenges synonymous with the Coronavirus.
More significant to the Rivers Governor’s courageous trip into the heart of the jungle where the operational hub of these illegal refineries throb with nefarious activity, is however the widely believed notion that the Federal Government and its security agencies have either deliberately or otherwise, failed woefully to rein in those behind illegal oil bunkering and artisanal crude oil refiners in the state, whose illegal operation has become the number one health hazard in the state.
Governor Wike, speaking on the Black soot matter, in his new year message stated categorically that: “As a State Government, we have drawn the attention of the Federal Government to this problem and requested for its intervention to stop the activities of illegal bunkering and artisanal crude oil refiners, which have been identified as the main sources of the soot pandemic.
“Unfortunately, the Federal Government has remained inexplicably silent over our request and even complicit to a large extent with the security agencies actively aiding, encouraging and protecting the artisanal refiners to continue with their harmful activities unabated,” the Governor declared.
To fully comprehend and appreciate the enormity of the situation which confronts Rivers people with the continued operations of these illegal refineries unchecked, and which has now driven the Rivers Governor to engage in this frontal, handson radical action to tackle the soot menace, one must necessarily reflect on the timeless igbo adage invoked by the great Nigerian writer, late Professor Chinua Achebe, in the famous novel in “Things Fall Apart” which says that: ‘ a man who does not know where the rain began to beat him, cannot say where he dried his body’.
It is a well known fact the illegal refining business is a multi- billion naira industry. It is something that is not hidden, it is very visible. Governor Wike has, in several widely reported occasions, called out the heads of Security agencies in the state, over their involvement in aiding and abetting the illegal operations.
Niger Delta analysts and Civil Society Organizations have also opined that a lot of influential political and military leaders referred to as ‘ cabals’ or ‘ cartels’ are all involved in this business, and so it has become quite difficult to put a halt to it.