The Ijaw National Congress has called on the Federal Government to create more jobs for the youths in order to eradicate illegal bunkering in the Niger Delta region.
The INC Publicity Secretary, Oyakemeagbegha Ezonebi, who stated this during an interview with Saturday PUNCH, said the high level of unemployment was fuelling illegal bunkering.
According to him, oil theft in Niger Delta is the youths’ response to unemployment and the increasing rate of poverty in the region.
He said, “There is serious hunger in the land. Where there are no jobs, people look for every means of survival and that is also something we can attribute to this bunkering activities.
“The best way to get rid of these activities is to engage them meaningfully. Those involved in illegal bunkering (oil theft) are not employed. This demonstrates the level of poverty in our land now.
“Even in Imo State where an explosion happened and over 300 people died, some persons went scooping oil again. People are now desperate. There is so much suffering in the land.
“Everything has gone up in price and now 10 times what the price used to be. So, it’s a big challenge. Government needs to do something drastic to bring this situation to normal.”
Ezonebi also said the unavailability of the products at an appropriate price is another challenge encouraging illegal bunkering.
According to him, while a litre of diesel sells for N800 at authorised filling stations, the illegal bunkers sell for N200 per litre.
He stressed that majority of consumers patronise oil thieves because they sell the product at cheap rate, adding that this was encouraging illegal bunkering.
“You see, illegal bunkering is being encouraged because of the scarcity of the product. If the product is available at authorised places like refineries and filling stations at the appropriate price, I doubt if anybody will patronise them.
“As long as diesel sells as high as N800 per litre and we hear these boys sell about N200 per litre, people who patronise them (oil thieves) will continue to encourage them,” he said.
