The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) through it National coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, has urged President Bola Tinubu to set up a seven-man independent panel of criminologists to investigate oil bunkering and related crimes, particularly from 2015 to the present, and to solve the never-ending mystery surrounding oil theft in Nigeria.
In a statement released on Saturday, Onwubiko urged the president to name and disgrace those found guilty at the conclusion of the investigation and to punish them harshly.
The demand from the civil rights advocacy group came hours after Mujahid Asari Dokubo, a well-known Niger Delta leader, accused the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Navy of being responsible for oil theft in the oil-rich Niger Delta region.
“The Army and Navy are behind oil theft. They intimidate civil defence, who are by law expected to protect installations. They tap directly from the oil head. What has been happening in the last eight years is unprecedented anywhere in the world,” he said.
In response to the accusations, the Nigerian Army stated that it had been actively involved in the fight against illegal oil bunkering, oil theft, illegal oil refining, and other various crimes in the area, with successful outcomes.
Additionally, the Nigerian Navy has demanded that Dokubo provide the names of the officers complicit in the theft of crude oil.
Reacting, Onwubiko said the allegations by Dokubo are startling and damning and these allegations must be thoroughly investigated.
“We ask that the President set up a seven-man independent panel of criminologists drawn from reputable global fora to investigate the larger cases of crude oil thefts from 2015-2023.
“The panel should identify, prosecute and sanction culprits in the severest of mechanisms and recover to the last dollar public funds diverted through those stolen crude oil by these rogues no matter their statuses.”
The group further demand that Dokubo should provide irrefutable evidence or be prosecuted for providing false information which is a criminal offence.