THE House of Representatives panel probing the upsurge of illegal oil bunkering activities in Nigeria’s coastal region, on Wednesday, threatened to wield the big sticks over the failure of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin and the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Ola Saad Ibrahim, to appear before it.The House leadership had, through a resolution, mandated its joint committee on Petroleum Upstream and Navy to probe the oil theft, but the two security chiefs failed to appear in person, as directed by the committee, but, instead, sent representatives.
At the session of the panel on Wednesday, chairman, Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Honourable Ajibola Muraina, warned that the committee would not hesitate to issue a warrant of arrest on the two senior security officers if they continued to ignore the invitation of the panel.
According to him, “we are not ready to deviate from our rules and we are not going to allow any junior officer to make the presentation because we don’t want a situation where statements would be mis-interpreted. We want the security chiefs to come and brief us on matters of security as it relates to illegal bunkering.”
He said if the security chiefs insisted not to appear, “we would not hesitate to apply the law, we have the power to issue warrant of arrest, depending on what we want, we are not bound to follow that, but I warn again that whoever is invited to this public hearing should appear.
He threatened further that “by tomorrow (today), if the CDS and the CNS are not here, I will not hesitate to take appropriate measure as this committee deems proper.”
Meanwhile, the Director of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Mr Austine Olorunsola, while making his presentation before the panel, proposed a stiffer penalty for oil thieves.
He called for joint efforts among the various stakeholders and government agencies to checkmate the illegal oil bunkering in the country.
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