By Disun Amosun
The Nigeria Air Force, NAF has announced that it has taken delivery of initial two aircrafts fitted with gadgets to operate at night to move against oil bunkering activities perpetrated mostly at night under the cover of darkness.
Representative of the Chief of Air Staff and Director Operations, AVM Abdul Ganiyu stated this in a presentation at the ongoing Investigative Hearing organised by the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Oil Theft and its resultant revenue loss to the country.
He added that already, training of pilots to operate the available aircrafts and others being expected shortly was in top gear and would be ready for deployment as from the third week of this month.
AVM Abdul Ganiyu asked relevant agencies with the required technology to locate illegal bunkering sites not to waste time in getting such locations across to NAF, with an assurance that precision actions will be taken from NAF bases to wipe out such sites and their illegal activities.
The NAF then seized the opportunity to warn civilians not connected to oil bunkering activities to steer clear of such sites so as not to fall victims of attacks.
The Nigeria Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA assured NAF of timely information on identified illegal bunkering sites through its highly sensitive monitoring gadgets.
Nigeria Middle and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency, NMDPRA on its part attributed bulk of oil and revenue loss to measurement inadequacies either overtly or covertly at the production line as well as fuel dispensing stage for end users.
“Bulk of the discrepancies is due to measurement inaccuracies, it is when oil is stolen from the production line before it gets to the terminals, due to faulty metering or delivery manipulation. Many Oil Companies operating in the country and their Regulators often collude not to use the internationally best certified instruments and equipment in perpetrating this economic sabotage” a member of the Price Regulatory Department of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources told the Investigative Hearing.
“Even when the pump-price of petrol was upwardly adjusted, we at the department in trying to enforce standard measurement and metering met with resistance from most marketers, that we have to employ the services of security agencies to compel compliance” he added.