Jamila Nuhu Musa & Nuruddeen M. Abdallah
29 June 2008
Navy Captain Senebi Crowther Hungiapuko, Acting Director Defence Information, speaks on the preparedness of the armed forces to tackle the problems of the Niger Delta, among other issues. Excerpts
There were reports recently that some officers were being court martial for selling arm to militant in Kaduna armouries. At what stage is the case now?
No, it is not concluded. It will be difficult to make any comment since the issue is not concluded. Until it is concluded we do not have any information for now.
Do you have an idea how long it will take since it is several months now since the whole thing started. I also think that such exercises usually have time frame.
I cannot say precisely.
You have rightly described Niger Delta as a burning issue. How do you see the recent order of the president to the military to clamp down on the militants?
Most of the information we get are based on what we read on the newspapers. And we cannot use newspapers information to tell you anything. And you can see that some ships are positioned on sea already.
As a naval officer, Nigerians are still wondering what kind of craft an ordinary creek boat could use to travel over 75 nautical miles on shore to destroy the country's biggest oil field on shore and the Navy could not see them?
Yes, I am a naval officer but it depends on at what time they come. You see the Navy was now asked to position themselves there not to patrol, based on the directives. The Navy was patrolling at that time, and may be they were not within the position of the oil field and that was why they were not able to see them.
So what type of craft did they use?
Since we have not seen them....
From your experience as a naval officer do they use ordinary boats?
I cannot say precisely but it must be sea gunboats.
But up to now the Navy has never shot any of the militants' boat?
But the Navy has been encountering those boys that move within the creeks to vandalise the oil pipelines. And of recent there were ships arrested on sea for illegal bunkering. We had a good number of them.
But many of them eventually get released after some time like....
Yes, for those that were not found wanting, you know bunkering is an illegal business. If you don't have the documents and you don't go for registration, then you are involved in illegality. That is when you will be arrested.
You don't have orders to shoot at any ship you see doing the wrong thing at sea?
We are not at war with anybody. We don't shoot them, we only apprehend them when we see them doing the wrong thing. You don't start shooting people.
Like you see them stealing crude oil?
If you see them physically, you get them arrested.
But, there is this allegation that even the Navy and other security agencies are involved in oil bunkering?
No, I don't think so.
But some admirals were court martial by the tribunal?
No. That has to do with the missing ships. That issue was about two years ago.
Can you say that the army, the Navy and the air force are well equipped to handle the Niger Delta issue?
Yes, we are well equipped.
But talking to your people on ground, that is, the military men, they said 'what do you expect, our hands are tight?
Our hands are tight in the sense that we are not in war with them. We are not supposed to go and crush them. We know it is a political issue and it should be tackled at that level.
Talking about equipment and all of that, here you have some rag tag army, may be in a small boat, going to the most important oil field and then nobody saw them?
That does not mean that we are not equipped. We are equipped; if we are not equipped our ship wouldn't have received the signal.
That takes us back to involvement. If as you said you are equipped and you saw these guys going there, you looked the other way?
You see we are equipped in a sense but we may not be fully equipped. We need equipment to enhance our patrol. The little we had we have been working with them. Certainly we need sea gun vessels to safeguard the installations. And also we need helicopters for surveillance.
Now how many do you have?
Yes we have, but we need specific helicopters for that. And that is the angle the Air force will also come in.
I recalled that we did a report a year ago that special purchases of equipment for the Niger Delta operations were made through the NNPC finances. What happened to all those crafts, patrol boats and even helicopter gun ships?
We are still waiting for them. There have been promises from the government to give us more.
You mean those ones have not even arrived? Yes, of recent we have not received anything. If we have received of recent, you would have known. There would have been a press briefing on that and the press would have seen them.
Giving the situation now in the Niger Delta and the level it has reached so far where militants who are also Nigerians are destroying the life line of the nation, how do you think that the situation should be approached?
You know dialogue is there. Apart from it we still need more equipment.
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