PROVIDE ILLEGAL BUNKERERS' LOADING POINTS, REPS ORDER DPR

The House of Representatives has ordered the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to provide a comprehensive list of loading points used by illegal oil bunkerers.

The order was issued at the ongoing investigative public hearing on the upsurge in illegal bunkering by the House Joint Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) and Navy. Hon Ajibola Muraina (PDP/Oyo) issued the order on behalf of the joint committee.

DPR's Director, Mr. Austin Olorunsola, requested for the assistance of security agencies to enable it compile the list.

'I can tell you categorically where legal loading goes on, but I don't have information on illegal loading points, we will need the help of security agencies to provide information on illegal loading points', Olorusola told the committee.

Bunkering, a term used elsewhere to refer to the supply of anchored ships, has been corrupted in Nigeria to describe the trade in stolen oil.

Meanwhile, the faceoff between the joint committee and the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Olusheyi Petinrin and the Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Ola Sa'ad Ibrahim over non appearance of the military chiefs at the public hearing continues to rage.

Representatives of the CDS and CNS on day two of the hearing informed the committee that the military chiefs were attending the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

The committee stopped the representatives from making their presentation insisting on appearance of the CDS and CNS.

Muraina threatened to exercise the National Assembly's constitutional powers to compel summons to arrest the CDS and the CNS and bring the duo before the committee.

He said, 'We are not ready to deviate from our rules and we are not going to allow any junior officer to make the presentation because we don't want a situation where statements of the superior officers would be misinterpreted.

'We want the security chiefs to come and brief us on matters of security as it relates to illegal bunkering.

'The laws are there, what we should do is to operate within the confines of the laws, I am constrained to say this again, but Section 11 of the Legislative powers and privileges Act stated clearly that it is a criminal offense to turn down summons to appear before the House.