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By Amaechi Okonkwo, Port Harcourt
On Thursday January 13, 2022 Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, in his characteristics theatrical manner went on personal inspection of some artisanal refinery (kpo-fire) sites in two local governments, Emohua and Ikwerre, and there announced “war” against operators of the illegal business of crude oil refining.
The governor’s action came barely two weeks after announcing in his New Year message to the state that the government had no option than to take necessary measures to tackle the menace of environmental pollution caused by soot emanating from activities of illegal crude oil refiners.
He had said that since several entreaties to the Federal Government to get security agencies to stop the illegal crude oil refining activities in the state went unanswered, the state had no option than to take necessary measures to tackle this particular and direct challenge to the collective health and survival of the people.
After the inspection the governor warned that his administration would not succumb to any form of blackmail or sentiment that could be stirred by perpetrators in an attempt to frustrate efforts at ending their hazardous business, directing the commissioner of Police, Eboka Friday, and other security chiefs, and some local council chairmen, who were part of the inspection to uncover for destruction all crude oil illegal refining sites.
Wike said: “They can’t be doing this and be killing my people. No reasonable government will allow that. And I can tell you with all due respect, we will take this matter very seriously.”
“Look at how, everyday, in your house, you see the soot. I mean, how can you allow that? So, this one that we can solve, we will solve it. We have assured the people of Rivers State, we will fight this matter to the last until I leave office.”
He noted that confronting the cartels controlling the business would not be easy but vowed to consider it as a war situation and fight it from the standpoint of the law.
According to him, no matter how highly placed the perpetrators may be, they will not be spared, but confronted, apprehended and be made to face the full wrath of the law.
Wike also directed the state attorney general and commissioner for Justice, Professor Zacchaeus Adangor, SAN, to take over the case files of illegal crude oil refinery operators arrested by the police.
“Attorney General, all these matters with the police, you have to retrieve the files so that you can prosecute the matters on our own. I don’t want any compromise anywhere.
“And then too, it will not be on the ministry. You have to constitute a legal team. Go and get our friends all over the country, so that we can execute this prosecution to the last.
“It is a serious matter. And I’m going to take it head on. In fact, it is a war. It is not poor people doing this, they’re a cartel. You must go and arrest these people; Chief W.J. Wocha, you must arrest Fubara Ohaka, and Chief Promise Ezekwe. You must arrest them.
“It doesn’t matter how highly placed you are. If you like be the paramount ruler. In fact, any traditional ruler that is involved, pick him for me. Let him understand that the law does not respect anybody.”
He also directed the Emohua council chairman, Dr Chidi Lloyd, to locate residences where processed crude oil products were stored and get the residents to ascertain their sources, stressing that the purpose of confronting this havoc was to ensure that the health of Rivers people was not further hampered by those illegal refining activities.
“If not, our people will continue to die. Even you, you’re not safe from related sicknesses like cancer. All those products in the houses; you must go after them, they must tell you where they got the products. Enough is enough.
“And I have said to the Federal Government if you’re not willing to do anything, don’t promise people anything. You told them that you will do something. How can you promise modular refinery. What I’m talking about is the safety of Rivers people. That is more important to me”.
This sudden declaration of war seemed to take the state by surprise because Wike had for years said the matter was a federal one and at other times, had frowned at anti-soot campaigners as if they were enemies of the state.
The ripple effects of the governor’s move immediately set in as the swan song now in the state is stop the kpo-fire business. There is currently a competition among the local council chairmen, community development committees, youth groups, the various security agencies as to who would arrest more artisanal refinery operators and destroy more refining sites in the state.
The state House of Assembly which had been dormant for the most part of its legislative life suddenly sat and passed a motion supporting the war and took a widely advertise protest march to the state police headquarters just adjacent the Assembly complex to demand action from the police.
The environment and residents have also witnessed the effect with a drastic reduction of the soot that had enveloped the atmosphere in most parts of the state causing wide and loud outcry about the imminent health hazards from the continued pollution. Air quality report of parts of the posted a more positive result as was the case before the declaration of the war.
Also following the governor’s order to the local council chairmen to expose sites of illegal refineries in their councils and a promise of N2 million for any site discovered and with a 48-hours ultimatum the state went on fire as the chairmen went around the nooks and crannies of the state in search of kpo fire sites.
One council chairman impounded an exhibit site belonging to a security agency where kpofire products and containers were usually kept and protected, and ran into heated opposition from that agency.
Reacting, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Rivers State Command, came out to debunk reports making the rounds that the command exhibit dumpsite located at NSCDC Jetty, Ogbogoro community in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area, was a bunkery site.
Briefing newsmen at the NSCDC Jetty Ogbogoro, the State Commandant, Aliyu Bature, said that the place in question was their Marine exhibit yard where arrested suspected oil thieves and illegal petroleum products were paraded.
Another council boss went many kilometres into the Ebubu forests where he traced what he called the largest illegal refining site in Nigeria.
On conclusion of the tracking and listing by the council bosses, Gov Wike summoned all of them together with heads of security agencies to the seat of power in Port Harcourt where he lambasted those he felt had been aiding kpofire with their uniforms and announced N20 million for each LGA boss to hire equipment to destroy the sites.
The governor later declared wanted 19 persons whom he alleged to be kingpins of illegal refinery operations and even ordered that some named monarchs be arrested.
Some of the monarchs protested and said they were innocent, and their kinsmen have joined to defend them. Some of them said they did not have an army to fight bunkerers and illegal refiners and urged the FG to bring modular refineries to solve the problem.
However, tongues are also wagging. Tongues of serious criticism wagging about the sudden declaration of the war and the manner in which it is being prosecuted.
Many keen followers of the soot pollution and the on-going efforts to curb it are wondering if it is a genuine war to end a deadly business that benefits just a few while endangering the entire populace of the state.
They query the timing of the war and the huge theatrics that are associated with its execution and expressing fears that the essence might just be for Governor Wike to score cheap political points coming into a political campaign period than really addressing in a sustainable manner the root cause of the illegal crude oil refining business.
They wonder at the governor’s sudden change of gear after less than a month earlier having taken to the airwaves to urge the people to pray for divine intervention because the state government could not do anything to arrest the situation.
He declared then that because everyone, including the federal government, security agencies Community leaders, etc were involved, it would only take God to stop the soot menace.
And to fire the first salvo is the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state which in a statement claimed that it was rather the state government that was behind the illegal bunkering and soot in the state.
The APC recalled that the governor in broadcast had declared wanted those the governor said were “kingpins of bunkering and illegal crude oil refining activities in their communities.”
“Those behind illegal bunkering activities in Okrika communities, Port Harcourt Township, Rivers South-East and Rivers South-West Senatorial Districts and their names would be soon published and declared wanted if they fail to voluntarily report to the police.
“While it appears that Gov Wike has finally hearkened to the overwhelming criticism by Rivers people, deeper and critical inquisition into the circumstances surrounding the phenomenon has revealed indirect large scale complicity by the Rivers State Government in the menace”.
The statement which was signed by Chris Finebone, the publicity secretary-elect of the Rivers APC, pointed out that from 2015 to date, most major projects by the Rivers State Government were being executed by a multinational construction company. At the present peak of the company’s construction activities in Rivers State, the company consumes on average about 300,000 litres of AGO per day. This has undeniably become one single biggest AGO consumption volumes in Rivers State. Sadly, the entire volume of AGO is sourced from illegal refiners of the product locally called ‘kpofire’ and the reason is that the company buys AGO at between N220 and N240 per litre, whereas, the official ex-depot price of AGO from NIPCO and other major importers range from N315 to N350 per litre.
“By buying the product from illegal refiners below-market minimum prices, a huge demand has been created for the kpofire (illegally refined) products. This naturally has encouraged so many people (young and old) to join the illegal refining business because of a thriving and ready market. The result is a burgeoning illegal refining business which has, in turn, heightened the level of soot descending on residents of Port Harcourt and environs, causing all manner of health problems for both the young and old, in the present and for the future.”
The party said one of the altruistic attempts to stop the ravaging soot, once and for all, would have been for the governor to interrogate the supply chain management practices of its major contractor, Julius Berger, to ensure that it operates responsibly.
“However, we doubt whether the governor will act along that line as all the subcontractors who supply AGO to ‘ally’ are linked to the governor who also recommended them to the company under local content participation.”
The statement went ahead to mention some three names of both foreign and local personalities they said are always briefing the governor, complicit in the relationship between the company and the government.
Rather than undertake a poorly rehearsed declaration in the media, the APC went on, the governor should have used these individuals to ensure that the company, by their action, desisted from encouraging illegal refining by obtaining clean AGO from reputable dealers/suppliers instead of patronising AGO sourced from the underworld at prices below market standard prices.
“What this means is that the more flyovers the company builds, the more soot we find in the air over Port Harcourt.”
But in spirited defence to the state government’s effort at ending the soot which was almost assuming an environmental and healthy emergency, Paulinus Nsirim, commissioner for Information and Communications praised the governor for his heroism.
“Political opportunists whose stock-in-trade is to politicise every genuine intention of Gov Wike should bury their heads in shame this time around”, he declared.
He said revelations have not only been mind-boggling in terms of the assemblage of sophisticated equipment and the operational dynamics of the illegal refineries, but sadly in the cumulative impact and overall long-term negative implications of the environmental, health and economic damages their continuous operations have inflicted and would continue to inflict on the people.
The Commissioner said: “Wike’s pragmatic offensive against illegal refineries had been driven by his deep worry and concern over the environmental pollution caused by dangerous black soot, which had practically covered the stratosphere of major parts of Rivers State and had become even more life-threatening with the arrival of the Omicron and Delta variants of Covid-19, to compound the already menacing and precarious respiratory health challenges synonymous with the corona virus.
“More significant to the Rivers governor’s courageous trip is however, the widely believed notion that the FG and its security agencies have either deliberately, or otherwise, failed woefully to rein in those behind illegal oil bunkering and artisanal crude oil refiners in the state, whose illegal operation has become the number one health hazard in the state.
“To fully comprehend and appreciate the enormity of the situation which confronts Rivers people with the continued operations of these illegal refineries unchecked, and which has now driven the Rivers governor to engage in this frontal, hands-on radical action to tackle the soot menace, one must necessarily reflect on the timeless Igbo adage invoked by the great Nigerian writer, the late professor, Chinua Achebe, in the famous novel in ‘Things Fall Apart’ which says that: ‘a man who does not know where the rain began to beat him, cannot say where he dried his body.’
“It is a well known fact that the illegal refining business is a multi-billion naira industry. It is something that is not hidden, it is very visible. Governor Wike has, in several widely reported occasions, called out the heads of security agencies in the state, over their involvement in aiding and abetting the illegal operations.
“Niger Delta analysts and civil society organisations have also opined that a lot of influential political and military leaders referred to as ‘cabal’ or ‘cartels’ are all involved in this business, and so it has become quite difficult to put a halt to it.
“The result of this illegal occupation in Rivers State and on Rivers people is the Black soot. Efforts to tackle this health hazard may have been cosmetic, especially following the 2016 and 2018 #StopTheSoot protests, Port Harcourt and other parts of Rivers State and Niger Delta.”
“Governor Wike has never failed to stand on the side of the people and his ‘war’ against illegal refineries is just another manifestation of a leader who not only leads from the front, but will always put his people first and step on toes to ensure that the people come first, no matter whose ox is gored.”
Finally, Nsirim advised: “Political opportunists whose stock-in-trade is to politicise every genuine intention of Governor Wike should bury their heads in shame this time around.”
