Vessels destroyed by military to cover up crude oil theft evidence — Ned Nwoko

Sen. Ned Nwoko (PDP-Delta), the vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment, claims that the military destroys ships that are detained for transporting illicit items or stolen crude oil in order to hide or obscure evidence.

Nwoko made these remarks in an interview with the Nigerian News Agency (NAN) in Abuja.

He emphasised that it made no sense to delete evidence that could be used to prove a crime had been committed, unless the people who were supposed to stop it were complicit and compromised.

Vandalism of crude oil pipelines and the destruction of ships transporting contraband or stolen crude oil, in his opinion, were absurd.

What’s the big deal? That defies logic in any way.

Do you think that destroying stolen property is the best course of action when someone is discovered in possession of it? Nope. You take it from them, record it, keep it safe, and bring charges against those responsible.

“And after that, you present that as evidence against them in court and, in the end, you give the product back to its owner.”

The senator, who also sits on the Senate Committee on Upstream Petroleum, went on to say that there was compromise and that’s the only reason the military destroyed ships that were being held for stealing or stealing crude oil—they were destroying evidence.

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In my opinion, the military is complicit. You are aware that some of them may have compromised, which is why they act in this way.

They have been acquired since it can take weeks at a time to load this type of commodity vessel—the crude—due to the size of the vessels.

Therefore, it isn’t as though you simply arrive, load it, and leave. As a result, loading takes some time, and the majority of them do so from the official platforms.

So who are the parties concerned? Who is in charge of those platforms? Potentially implicated parties include the police, NNPC officials, oil firms, and production companies.

“You know what these people, I mean the joint task team, have in common? They all become wealthy very quickly. They are all purchasing vehicles, homes, and just about anything you can think of. Yes, they have made a compromise.

“It is the sole explanation for why I believe they are unwilling to wait for the vessels to be examined, preferring to delete the evidence since they are aware that it may point to them. They burn them, they ruin them,” Nwoko remarked.