Children, Women Shielding Illegal Oil Refining Camps From Destruction – Gov Diri

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

The Bayelsa state Governor Douye Diri, on Tuesday, December 24, 2024, accused oil thieves and other criminal elements sabotaging oil installations in the Niger Delta region of using women and children to evade the destruction of their illegal  operational sites.

This is just as he charged Local Government Chairmen, traditional rulers and community leaders in Bayelsa to rise up to the occasion by assisting in the efforts at halting the inglorious activities of illegal oil refiners .

Governor Diri who spoke  at a meeting with  members of the Bayelsa State Council of Traditional Rulers and Council Chairmen  expressed deep concern over the trend of using women ,children and other vulnerable groups as human shields at illegal oil refining camps

The state Governor, lamented that the renewed efforts at fighting oil thefts and shore up the crude production capacity of the country, have been severely hampered by the use of these vulnerable members of the society to evade the destruction of the illegal sites by the military.

“The report I received recently is that at illegal bunkering sites, they now have children and women which is a new  dimension I have never heard before.

“Some times when the military are authorized to destroy those camps ( illegal oil refining sites ) and when they get there on reconnaissance ,they ( military) will discover that children and women are used to shield those places.

“So ,we all have to work together. in our domains to educate our people. There was a situation where the military moved in to destroy illegal oil refining sites ,only to discover that children and women were there and so had to withdraw”, the Governor noted.

He, therefore, urged the traditional rulers and Local Government leaderships to set machineries in motion to sensitize their subjects on the need to refrain from sabotaging oil production activities as well as aiding and abating illegal refining of  petroleum products.

Governor Diri specifically, singled out Nembe, Brass, Southern Ijaw and Ekeremor Local Councils as the epicentre of the illegal oil refining operations.

He enjoined the Traditional Rulers and council chairmen to be providing him with  regular information on the activities of oil thieves and pipeline vandals in their respective domains.