The recent arrest by Nigerian security operatives of 22 Filipinos for alleged involvement in illegal oil bunkering in Delta State has once again brought to the front burner the booming illegal oil deals going on in the Niger Delta region. The foreigners were apprehended aboard a vessel, MT AKUADA, along Escravos waterways in Warri South West Local Government Area of the state. The vessel was said to be carrying 12,500 tonnes (84,000 barrels) of stolen crude before it was intercepted and impounded by the Joint Military Taskforce (JTF), stationed to help bring the elusive peace to the region.

But the arrest of the Filipinos was not the first of such activities of these dubious foreigners. Similar incidents had made headlines in the recent past. In June this year for instance, 14 Filipinos were arrested aboard another bunkering vessel in the creeks of Bayelsa State. Apart from the Filipinos, about 10 Russian nationals, who also were engaged in the illicit act allegedly skirted arrest and escaped with their illegal loot in a vessel named the African Pride in 2003.

During former President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration, the Nigerian Navy arrested scores of illegal bunkering ships, though there were no records of the Nigerian owners or agents of such shipment, and nobody was brought to book. There have been reports also by some Niger Delta militants, alleging the involvement of those in the corridors of power. If any proof of this was needed they say, it was the African Pride vessel incident of 2003.

In 2004 and early 2005, Obasanjo turned what should normally have been a routine anti-illegal bunkering patrol into a nightmare for the Nigerian Navy. This eventually culminated in a bizarre show trial of three Rear Admirals and others. The House Committee for the Navy in the then House of Representatives did what many saw as a thorough investigation of the case in early 2005. Its report was said to have clearly showed that the cause of the problem was alleged complicity by the authorities in a criminal plan, which eventually succeeded, to allow the arrested ship to escape.

The Navy arrested the ship, MT African Pride, on October 8, 2003 carrying some 6500metric tonnes of impure crude. In the trial, two Rear Admirals were dismissed and the Navy was humiliated while the Nigerians and the Russians who owned or hired the ship went scot-free.

Illegal bunkering has continued to thrive despite the presence of heavy military personnel in the area since then. It is alleged in some quarters that the criminal business enabled rebel militias to amass money, influence and arm themselves to the extent that they often boast of possessing more guns and ammunition than the JTF. Local residents say members of the Nigerian military stationed in the region as well as other top military brass also profit from the illicit business. A member of the Waterways Security Committee investigating kidnapping, which is also widespread in the region, Omolubi Nuwuwumi, once alleged that soldiers are very much involved.

"The soldiers are deeply involved. There is no bunkering activity that is taking place in the Niger Delta that the military is not involved in. Eighty per cent of soldiers in the region own the best cars. These are people who did not own a motorcycle before coming to the Niger-Delta," Nuwuwumi said.

The military has, however, acknowledged that a few soldiers might be involved but insists it is addressing the matter. "There are good and bad eggs in the army," says military spokesman, Rabe Abubakar.

Crude oil smuggling has continued unabated in the Niger Delta. This has made worse, over the years, the chronic under-development, a disaffected youth and increasing lawlessness that abound in the region. An Abuja-based oil industry analyst, Mohammed Umar estimates that at least 100,000 barrels of oil are stolen everyday through bunkering, while Human Rights Watch says, it could be as much as 300,000.

Bunkering is the lifting of petroleum products from one point to another with a licence. In the absence of filing stations as in most parts of the Niger Delta, approved operations largely use boats to distribute fuel in the riverine areas. Local militants, angry at underdevelopment in the region, have taken up arms to demand a greater share of Nigeria's oil wealth and drive much of the oil bunkering. According to the Niger Delta-born researcher, Sofiri Peterside: "Militant groups are made up primarily of unemployed youth who have few opportunities to earn a descent living."

The Finance Minister, Shamsudeen Usman says Nigeria has produced more than $300 billion worth of crude oil since the 1970s from the Delta region. However, just 13 per cent of the regions oil revenues return to the Delta's local economy according to a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) study. Despite the huge earnings from the oil boom, Nigeria still remains an underdeveloped country when countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan and even South Africa with little natural or mineral resources are today classified as fast developing economies of the world.

"Inside the Niger Delta, we don't see petrol, diesel or kerosene. We don't see bitumen to tar our roads. We are refining petroleum products to help our people get light, fuel to cook even use it to tar our roads. Let them leave us to refine our oil," said a local rebel commander, known simply as Tompolo.

Peterside said the potential wealth from crude oil smuggling feeds the state of lawlessness in the Delta. Bunkering groups may use money or intimidation to win over community leaders, he said, and fights over 'bunkering turf' often foment inter-communal violence. He estimated that so far up to 1,000 people have been killed in clashes in the Delta.

Representatives of oil company Royal Dutch Shell, which has dominated oil excavation in Nigeria for over 50 years, warn that the unrelenting scavenging for fuel has grave implications both for the industry and local communities. "Fires easily break out when crude methods are used to tap into the oil pipelines. There have been several instances where charred bodies are all that were left to tell the story of a failed attempt to tap into the pipelines," said Joseph Ollor-Obari, Shell spokesperson in Warri.

Since 1998, thousands of people have burned to death in Southern Nigeria when ruptured fuel pipelines caught fire. Deaths in hundreds and even thousands from oil pipeline explosions and the resultant fire have unfortunately become a sickening recurring decimal in Nigeria as much as illegal bunkering. The litany of this recurring and constant oil pipelines explosions and deaths include that of the 1998 Jesse in Delta State in which about 1,000 lives were lost.

There were other incidents such as, the Ebute-Oko near Lagos, Egborode Village in Delta State in 2000, Ilado in 2004, Ekpan in Delta State and Port Harcourt in Rivers State in October and December 2005.

Ollor-Obari said: "Valves are welded into active pipes conveying crude oil and other products. Once the new tap is in place, the product is siphoned through hoses or pipes and into containers that are transported in boats. Sometimes the thieves use barges that can contain up to 100,000 tonnes of fuel."

The scale of oil theft is also resulting in serious environmental damage. Former Environment Minister, Halima Alao said that Nigeria recorded 1,260 oil spills between 2006 and June 2008, 419 of them in the first half of 2008, reflecting a "progressive trend" of theft and sabotage.

Obviously, oil production constitutes some basic pollution tendencies. However, experts say what is important is how prompt and skillful the post pollution mechanism is manipulated. Reported cases of spillage paint a worrisome scenario. Between 1976 and 1996, about 4,835 incidents have resulted in the spillage of approximately 2,446,322 barrels into the environment. Of this quantity, 1,889,930 barrels, representing about 77 per cent were lost in the situation.

Aside from spillage and inferno usually caused by bunkering, the nation losses several billions of dollars to bunkering yearly. Investigations reveal that some oil firms engage in cost cutting measures where equipments due for seasonal maintenance against corrosion and others are continually over used. But, the oil firms think differently. According to them, theirs has been to produce the nation's wealth and reap little. They easily point out the colossal compensation they pay out to communities in the event of spill, even as they say they put in place clean up measures.

Abubakar also disclosed that, the authorities are making some progress.

"Just this week we destroyed 180 illegal refineries at Okogbe and Egbe Ede. We destroyed 30 metal storage tanks, 800 drums filled with diesel, and 1,000 empty jerry cans," he said. The military, in the words of Abubakar, has helped destroy 300 illegal refineries since April this year. Military gunboats, he said, have been positioned throughout the region to block waterways and restrict passage for smugglers vessels, and the government has deployed thousands of troops in recent years in the Niger Delta to check bunkering.

But with oil pipelines forming a network in the Delta covering over thousands of kilometres, it is nearly impossible to stop illegal tapping, said Tompolo.

In spite of all these allegations, some residents say it is a mistake for the government to address the bunkering issue as a security rather than a development problem. "There cannot be a military solution to the crisis in the Niger Delta. We have seen numerous crackdowns by troops over the years and yet the violence has not abated. The Delta needs jobs, schools, electricity and roads÷there is no development happening in the Delta. It remains under-developed and desperately poor,"

Ebi Okrika, a local philanthropist said.

Some estimates put the amount of crude stolen from the Niger Delta to the tune of $5.6 million daily or $2 billion a year at current price. What this amounts to is that, a cabal that thrives on illegal oil bunkering has fraudulently diverted a large chunk of the nations resources. In achieving their objectives, the clique usually made up of powerful and influential members of the Niger Delta give arms to the militants.

Joseph Evah, head of Ijaw Monitoring Group (IMG), however, sees the situation differently. According to Evah, the perpetrators and gainers are the JTF made up of the navy, soldiers and air force personnel.

The Ijaw leader disclosed that the military personnel in the Delta area go as far as paying high amount of money to be posted to the Niger Delta. "Illegal oil bunkering in the Niger Delta is the handiwork of the military stationed in the Delta. Have you forgotten how a Rear Admiral was jailed and later dismissed? As I am talking to you, I can tell you on good authority that some people pay as much as N4, 000 to be posted to the Niger Delta.

"The Satte Security Service (SSS) and other military personnel in the Delta area should be ashamed of themselves for what they are doing. Right now, there is a clash in the creek between the military men engaged in oil bunkering and their sponsors over sharing of money. The Filipinos we saw on television are their international partners," Evah said.

In what seems a confirmation of Evah's assertion, the General Court Martial (GCM), in Kaduna reportedly sentenced Major Sulaiman Alabi Akubo, Sergeant Mathias Peters, Lance Corporal Alexander Davou, Lance Corporal Moses Nwaigwe, Lance Corporal Nnamdi Anene and Private Caleb Bawa to life imprisonment for selling arms to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).

The convicted soldiers were said to have sold weapons stolen from the depots of the Army located at the Command and Staff College, Jaji and One Base Ordinance, Kaduna to MEND through Sunny Okah, brother of the leader of the group, Henry Okah. Okah is currently standing trial for treason and gun running. The soldiers allegedly stole and sold more than 7,000 weapons worth about a N100 million.

The members of Professional Seafarers Association of Nigeria (PSAN) were also on warpath on November 19 when they demonstrated in Lagos, and blamed the supervising agency, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), over the nation's maritime industry, for flooding the Nigerian aviation industry with Filipinos and Chinese.

Bearing placards with such inscriptions, 'Dosunmu must go!' 'All we are saying give us our rights!' 'Nigerian jobs must be for Nigerians,' the group said it would not give up its fight, or keep quiet until the anomalies in the sector are corrected, and Nigerian seafarers can find jobs in their own country. They insisted that the arrest of Filipinos in the Niger Delta would not have happened if the agency had done its job in the first place, rather than preferring foreigners over its own citizens for employment.

The national coordinator of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Frank Otunyo, explained that the Director General (DG) of the supervising agency, Dr. Shamsudeen Ade-Dosunmu, had been paying lip service to the Cabotage regime, which according to him, seeks to achieve 100 per cent employment of Nigerians in the nation's maritime sector.

"There are many qualified Nigerians, up to 2,500, from all parts of the country who have been discriminated against by NIMASA, as it continues to employ foreigners over, most times, more qualified Nigerians," Otunyo said.

Petroleum, gas and other hydrocarbon products form the largest foreign exchange earnings for Nigeria in the last three decades, and possibly for the next 100 years or more. The Nigerian economy is totally dependent on this commodity and as the sixth largest exporter of crude oil, a lot of countries depend on Nigeria to power their industrial sector and energy.

The "black gold" is mostly located in the troubled Niger Delta area of Delta, Edo, Rivers, Bayelsa and Akwa-Ibom states. It has become, in the opinion of many, a curse rather than a blessing not only to the people of the Niger Delta, but also to Nigeria as a whole. The Niger Delta region presently sits atop more than 30 billion barrels of top grade crude and substantial gas deposits, but it is one of the most improvised regions in Nigeria. Militants and members of local criminal gangs operate hundreds of illegal refineries in the Delta, where they refine oil to sell locally or to ships waiting offshore to transport it to the global market.

Spillage usually experienced in the region occurred naturally and could also be perpetrated by criminals in the area. Some criminal minded individuals deliberately assault the production facilities of an oil company either by drilling holes on the pipelines or removing the valves, thereby, resulting in gushing out of crude oil. It is, according to experts, these broken pipelines that provide avenues for illegal bunkering, those involved are usually in partnership with unscrupulous foreigners in the region.