…As Atiku links migration to unemployment; tasks Gov’t on creating enabling environment***
There may be a black Christmas for oil thieves in Lagos, as the Nigerian Navy at the weekend swooped on Atlas Cove Island and recovered 1,330 jerry cans filled with petrol during a raid.
The Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) BEECROCT Commander, Rear Adm. Maurice Eno confirmed this on Saturday, adding that the product was evacuated from a storage facility in Ilado/Idimangoro area of the island. The navy also said the jerry cans filled with PMS products would be handed over to the NNPC.
According to the naval chief, the petroleum product was stolen from vandalised NNPC pipelines on Atlas Cove Island.
Eno who said that no person was found at the storage facility during the raid, pointed out that the navy actually monitored activities in the area for about three weeks to ascertain the veracity of the information.
“On December 14, at about 8.10 a.m., a detachment of personnel from the NNS Beecroft raided the locations and discovered a storage facility having over one thousand five hundred jerricans.
“1,330 of the Jerricans contained product suspected to be premium Motor Spirit(PMS) believed to have been siphoned from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipelines laid on the island.
“At the time of the raid, no person was found on the storage facility,” he said.
“The team also discovered the siphoning points where valves were connected by the vandals to steal the product.
“It is pertinent to note that NNPC pipelines laid on Atlas Cove Island are under the supervision and care of Top Line Security Limited/Kings Guard Security Company.
“It is obvious that these acts may not have gone unnoticed by these private security outfits,” he said.
Eno said that the navy was committed to assisting the NNPC in dealing with pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft.
“The navy is using this medium to warn pipeline vandals and other criminal elements particularly in our maritime environment to desist from nefarious activities and pursue lawful means of livelihood,” he said.
The correspondent who visited Atlas Cove Island on Saturday reports that several items used by the vandals in siphoning petrol from NNPC pipelines were found in the area.
In the meantime, Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has linked migration to rising waves of unemployment, and tasked governments at all levels to create the enabling environment that would attract and sustain investments, so as to create jobs for the army of unemployed Nigerians.
A statement by Atiku Media Organisation on Sunday in Abuja reported Abubakar as offering the advice, to mark the United Nations International Migrants Day holding on (today) Monday.
He said that creation of jobs and opportunities with inclusive government that did not engender crisis would help to stem the ill-fated migration of Nigerians.
Abubakar said that the major driver of migration, which at times was ill fated like in the case of Libya, was the search of a better life and opportunity.
He said that the current situation in the country where three million jobs, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, had been lost annually in the last two years, had rendered millions of Nigerians jobless, with no prospects of opportunities, thereby compelling youths to embark on suicidal adventures.
“The chances of a young person with a job and opportunity at home taking a suicidal flight in search of a better life will become an exception and not the rule”, he said, attributing the cause of migration to poverty and insecurity in the original countries of the migrants.
Abubakar noted that it was imperative for governments in Africa, Nigeria inclusive, to govern in such a way as to create an environment conducive for economic progress and employment generation.
He added that a fair and inclusive government would spread available opportunities to all citizens.
This, according to him, will also encourage those with entrepreneurial inclination to start businesses and factories to absorb the teeming population of the unemployed, thus making unbridled migration unnecessary.
The former Vice President stated that citizens did not choose to be migrants but unpleasant social, economic and political conditions in many countries forced them into migrants, seeking new homes, security, employment and a better future.
He opined that all hands needed to be on deck to deal squarely, and in a humane manner, with the challenges thrown up by the reality of migration in the contemporary World.
He said that one of the worst forms of maltreatment, which a migrant could experience, was the large scale enslavement of young and helpless Nigerian and African migrants in Libya which recently drew global attention.
“To prevent the recurrence of unbridled migration as we have today among Nigerian youths, the authorities at federal and state levels should endeavor to discourage potential migrants.
“This should be done through public enlightenment and information about the down sides of poorly conceived overseas travels.”
He urged the international community to ensure that the international code of treatment of migrants was strictly adhered to
