The House of Representatives Special Committee on Crude Oil Theft has called
for the establishment of a special court to fast-track the prosecution of crude oil
thieves and other economic saboteurs, saying weak laws and delays in the
judicial process have continued to undermine efforts to curb oil theft in Nigeria.
The proposal was made at a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja on Thursday, where
lawmakers, security agencies and officials from the Office of the National
Security Adviser reviewed the country’s legal framework for tackling crude oil
theft, pipeline vandalism and related offences.
The meeting forms part of the committee’s ongoing consultations on legislative
and institutional measures to address crude oil theft, which has continued to
reduce government revenue, cut oil production, discourage investment and
threaten Nigeria’s energy security despite years of security operations.
Chairman of the committee, Alhassan Doguwa, said participants agreed on the
need to review existing laws, arguing that many of the statutes governing the
sector date back to the military era and no longer provide adequate deterrence
against increasingly sophisticated criminal networks.
“We have also recommended in previous bills before the House the possibility
of establishing a special court for these kinds of crimes because the crimes
themselves are special.
“If we allow these criminal cases to go through the conventional court system,
considering the delays involved, many of them will remain unresolved while the
criminals escape appropriate punishment,” he said.
He said the committee and stakeholders had agreed to work together to address
legal and institutional bottlenecks hampering the fight against crude oil theft.
“The global oil and gas economy is now in an advanced stage. Virtually all oil-
producing countries are making progress because they have provided effective
legal instruments to address their challenges. For this reason, we believe Nigeria
should also review some of its laws,” he added.
Doguwa noted that courts are still relying on outdated legislation enacted during
military rule to prosecute offences in the oil and gas sector.
“Unless we provide new measures, new laws and a new legal framework, the
courts will continue to rely on this obsolete legislation in handling serious
criminality within Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
“I want to assure Nigerians that the National Assembly, especially the House of
Representatives through this committee, will partner with the Office of the
National Security Adviser to effectively combat crude oil theft and every other
criminal activity within the oil and gas environment,” he added.
The lawmaker said Nigeria’s crude oil production remains below budget
projections because of persistent theft and pipeline vandalism, stressing that
reversing the trend is essential to improving government revenue and restoring
investor confidence.
He noted that representatives of the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy, Nigerian
Air Force, Nigeria Police Force and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence
Corps attended the meeting, describing inter-agency collaboration as critical to
addressing the challenge.
Doguwa, however, criticised the absence of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum
Regulatory Commission from the meeting, describing it as disappointing.
“It was rather unfortunate that some of the critical regulatory agencies in the oil
and gas sector, particularly the NUPRC, neither attended nor sent
representatives.
“We frown at that action and have directed the Clerk of the Committee to write
to them, requiring them to appear before the committee because they are key
stakeholders in the fight against this serious problem bedevilling our country,”
he added.