The Chief of Defence Staff, Christopher Musa, has justified why the Nigerian Army has been facing difficulties in the fight to end oil bunkering and theft in the Niger Delta region.

The Defence disclosed that communities in the region “protect” those carrying out the oil bunkering and also help to rebuild illegal oil refineries whenever the military personnel destroy them.

Musa disclosed this in an interview with Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday.

According to hoim, Nigeria is losing huge amounts of money to illegal activities in the region such as crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism.

He said, “We are having a lot of problems with the communities in the Niger Delta. Some communities even protect individuals that do this (crude oil theft). On a daily basis, we destroy illegal oil refineries.

(But) as we are doing that and turning around, they are fixing them (the illegal refineries) back.”

Musa expressed worry that those who engage in crude oil theft in the Niger Delta have developed capacities to fix illegal oil refineries destroyed by the military “at a very short term.”

“We have seen situations where, eight, seven, six kilometers away from pipelines, broken, drawn perfectly and connected to individual houses and they are moving these things (crude oil) out,” he said.

He added that  the fight against crude oil theft would have been seamless if Nigerians were reporting individuals who engage in the illegal activity to the military.

“We cannot be everywhere. If Nigerians report these issues to us, we will be able to address them,” he said.

Recall that the federal government in August awarded a pipeline surveillance contract reportedly worth N48 billion per year (N4 billion per month) to Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited to tackle the issue in the region.

The security company is operated by a former militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo.

Tantita has recorded a number of successes, especially during joint operations with the Nigerian military, which has resulted in the destruction of several illegal refineries in the region.