The House of Representatives Special Committee on Crude oilTheft has blamed obsolete laws for the persistence of crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism, warning that weak penalties have emboldened criminals and undermined efforts to protect Nigeria’s oil and gas assets.

The committee said many of the laws currently used to prosecute oil theft-related offences date back to the military era and no longer reflect the gravity of the crimes, stressing the need for urgent legislative reforms, including the establishment of a special court to handle crude oil theft cases.

Chairman of the committee, Alhassan Ado Doguwa, spoke during a stakeholders’ meeting organised by the committee as part of efforts to identify lasting solutions to crude oil theft, a menace that has continued to erode government revenue and threaten national security.

According to Doguwa, stakeholders at the meeting agreed on the need to review the country’s legal framework governing the oil and gas sector to ensure that sanctions serve as an effective deterrent.

He explained that while the Petroleum Industry Act provides the framework for doing business in the oil and gas sector, several obsolete legislations, including military decrees, are still relied upon in prosecuting offenders.

“We have been able to achieve some very remarkable progress in the course of our interface. We all agreed to work on the same page to address the existing legal frameworks and some of the bottlenecks affecting them.

“The global oil and gas economy is now in an advanced stage. Virtually all oil-producing countries are making progress because they have provided effective legal instruments to address their challenges. Nigeria should also review some of its laws.

“Unless we provide new measures, new laws and a new legal framework, the courts will continue to rely on these obsolete legislations in handling serious criminality within Nigeria’s oil and gas sector,” he added.

Doguwa said the committee would work with the Office of the National Security Adviser and other relevant institutions to strengthen the legal framework for tackling crude oil theft.

He also linked oil theft to Nigeria’s inability to meet its crude oil production targets, saying the country’s economic projections would remain under pressure unless the menace was decisively addressed.

The lawmaker expressed disappointment over the absence of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission at the meeting, describing the agency as a critical stakeholder in the fight against crude oil theft.

“It was rather unfortunate that some of the critical regulatory agencies in the oil and gas sector, particularly the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, neither attended nor sent representatives,” he said.

Doguwa disclosed that the committee had directed its clerk to invite the commission to appear before it.

He reiterated the committee’s proposal for the establishment of a special court to handle crude oil theft and related offences, arguing that the regular court system often delays the prosecution of suspects.

“We have also recommended in previous bills before the House the possibility of establishing a special court for these kinds of crimes because the crimes themselves are special.

“If we allow these criminal cases to go through the conventional court system, considering the delays involved, many of them will remain unresolved while the criminals escape appropriate punishment,” he said.

Also speaking, a member of the committee, Cyril Hart, said beyond outdated laws, inadequate funding and the capacity of oil asset operators also require legislative attention.

Hart noted that companies holding oil licences should be compelled to maximise production, warning that failure to do so amounted to economic sabotage.

Representing the National Security Adviser, Goodluck Ilajufi, Director of Energy Security at the Office of the National Security Adviser, urged the National Assembly to strengthen existing laws prescribing punishments for oil thieves and pipeline vandals.

According to him, security agencies often expend enormous resources arresting suspects only for offenders to receive what he described as insignificant punishments.

“A judge may sentence someone to five years imprisonment with an option of a N100,000 fine, or even six months imprisonment. That makes a mockery of the entire process,” he said.

Ilajufi called for amendments to relevant provisions of the Miscellaneous Offences Act to impose stiffer penalties for offences involving petroleum infrastructure.

Speaking, the Assistant Commandant General (Operations) of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, David Idowu, backed the proposal for a special court, saying weak legislation has remained a major obstacle to combating crude oil theft.

A representative of the Nigeria Police Force, CSP Idris Abdullahi Mohammed, also reaffirmed the commitment of the police to working with other security agencies and stakeholders to curb crude oil theft and illegal bunkering across the country.