Reacting to claims by Dokubo, Ayo-Vaughan said the latest operation by the navy saved the country from losing N71bn to oil thieves as of June 2.
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Nigerian Armed Forces have countered Niger Delta leader, Asari Dokubo, who claimed on Friday that 99 per cent of oil theft incidents recorded in the oil-rich region was traceable to the Nigerian Army and Navy.
“The military is at the centre of oil theft, and we have to make this very clear to the Nigerian public that 99 per cent of oil theft can be traced to the Nigerian military, the Army and the Navy especially,” Dokubo told State House correspondents after he met President Bola Tinubu behind closed doors at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
The former agitator, however, pledged to join the government in ending the menace, adding that he was confident the Tinubu administration would “fish out” the guilty elements in the military.
But the spokesperson for the Navy, Commodore Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan, and his counterpart in the Army, Brig. Gen Onyema Nwachukwu, denied the claims by Dokubo in separate interviews with PUNCH.
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Ayo-Vaughan dared Dokubo to provide evidence to substantiate his claim, disclosing that the latest operation by the navy saved the country from losing N71bn to oil thieves as of June 2.
He said, “Also, it is allegedly stolen from offshore at sea. We have been fighting crude oil theft taking it to the creeks. If Dokubo is claiming that there is a cabal of military personnel involved in oil theft, let him bring their names.”
On his part, Nwachukwu said the Nigerian Army had zero tolerance for any compromise on the part of its troops and would not condone such acts of economic sabotage.
He added, “The Nigerian Army has zero tolerance for any compromise on the part of our troops and will not condone such acts of economic sabotage. No black sheep will be spared if identified.”
