BY CALEB AYANSINA

ABUJA — The Nigerian Navy,  yesterday, admitted not winning the war against oil thieves in the Niger Delta, citing circumstances beyond their  control.

Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jibrin, who made the admittance at a briefing on the upcoming 2014 Navy Week in Abuja, said it would soon bring stakeholders to a roundtable to seek ways of ending the persistent economic menace in the oil rich region.

Represented by the Chief of Policy and Plans, Naval Headquarters, Rear Admiral Amin Ikioda, the CNS insisted that curbing the menace involved inter-agency cooperation.

He said:  “What we do now is that any arrest we make, once it is confirmed to have violated the laws of this country or found to have been involved in illegalities in our maritime space, we handover such a vessel and the crew to the EFCC, police and sometimes to the Civil Defence because those people have powers to prosecute. You know the processes.

“When you go to court and the application of justice, sometimes takes years, so most of the cases, when we handover, we leave them to the prosecuting authorities to do.

“But from time to time, we still assist them in one way or the other anytime such case comes up, so since these years, we cannot concretely tell you the number of convictions that have been secured, but we know that the cases are still ongoing at the various courts.”

Speaking further, Jibrin said Nigerian Navy constantly carried out surveillance and patrol of the maritime areas with available surveillance systems, ships and helicopter.
According to him, such policing operations are specifically aimed at checking crude oil theft, illegal bunkering, piracy/sea robbery and illegal fishing, among other vices.

He reaffirmed that the Nigerian Navy had been unrelenting in its operations to protect the nation’s maritime environment against all forms of threats to the country’s interest.
Jibrin recalled that this year, the Nigerian Navy had arrested 38 ships involved in various illegalities in the maritime domain and currently have eight Chinese ships in its custody.

The CNS noted that the Navy Week celebration would be followed by a conference for the Nigerian Navy and maritime stakeholders to proffer lasting solutions to oil theft.
”The objective of the conference is for Nigerian Navy and maritime stakeholders to brainstorm on how best to combat crude oil theft, which has attained worrisome dimension lately,” he said.

The Naval boss added that the conference would also be an avenue for the Nigerian Navy to solicit support from all maritime stakeholders in dealing with the menace of crude oil theft in the nation’s maritime environment.
He also disclosed that the Navy would embark on a grassroots social and medical outreach programme in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Calabar and other areas it had major events.

According to him, after the public holiday on May 29, the Nigerian Navy will continue its week with a 2-day fleet evaluation exercise, which would feature fleet manoeuvres, interception, board and search, as well as arrest, if necessary.