Angry oil workers protested today and criticized the soldiers.

Nigeria's leading oil and gas association on Wednesday threatened to clash with the federal government over massive oil theft in the Niger Delta.
In an interview with journalists in Abuja, PENGASSAN Chairman, Festus Osifo, denounced soldiers and other security personnel guarding the country's oil pipelines for the continuous theft of oil. He said the communities will stop producing oil if the government does not stop the thefts.
He also announced that the association would hold concurrent meetings on Thursday (today) in Abuja, Warri, Kaduna and Lagos. He said the meeting will enable the government to know that PENGASSAN members are tired of producing oil stolen by thieves at last despite security forces protecting the pipeline.
Mele Kyari, Group CEO of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, on Tuesday said the widespread vandalism had prompted the NNPC to shut down its pipeline network that transports petroleum products across the country. “When we say 700,000 barrels of crude oil are lost every day, we mean it. It's a waste of opportunity. Without an oil producer, you lose 80% and still produce oil.
“That's why we intentionally shut down our pipeline when these breaches get to the point where we can't handle them. This means that we know for sure that we can produce at least 700,000 barrels today, but we cannot guarantee the safety of the pipeline,” explains Curie.
Osifo lamented the consequences of the theft and called for the imprisonment of security personnel assigned to protect pipelines where large quantities of crude oil are stolen daily, noting that many oil companies have been forced to shut down as a result of these developments. Festus Osifo, Chairman of PENGASSAN, told reporters in Abuja that international oil companies such as Agip, Total, Shell and Addax have stopped producing oil at some wells because of the theft and that the jobs of their workers are now at risk. .
He said: “If there is no progress after this rally, our community may have to fire operating company staff because they cannot continue pumping crude oil into the pipeline. It ends. It was destroyed by people who didn't know how oil was produced. “Some of these pipeline breakers call and threaten our members when they stop production on the line, ask our members why they stopped producing the line and open the line.
“So the lives of our members are at risk. If someone takes your number and calls you, it means they know you. So we can't let this happen anymore and the government needs to sit down."

breaking technique
Osifo said the vandals used advanced technology as the crime was not limited to members of the host community. "This cartel is doing this because the technology required to disrupt the pipeline is so fantastic and not easy," he said.
“So today our community had to shout and shout because if no action was taken, our members would go into national solidarity with them pulling out of production. “Let's join the government and help because they are not responsible for what they should be doing and because they do not have the political will to fight this crime.
“We can't keep producing and some people turn it upside down and sell it every day to become millionaires. We can't take this anymore."

The association called for the arrest of the security personnel assigned to protect the pipelines where large quantities of crude oil are stolen daily.
“Government needs to wake up,” Osipo said. Naval officers, civil defense officers and men and women of the Nigerian Army cannot be deployed in the Niger Delta River and will not develop mechanisms to hold them accountable.
Accountability for sending people to a certain area and how many of them end up in jail is important if pipelines are threatened. Because there is no accountability.
“If you don't have performance management and you keep resetting every six months, you have a million dollar oil theft every six months. This is happening right now."

"We are therefore calling on the Chief of Staff of the Department of Defense, the Chief of the Naval Staff and the Chief of the Army Staff to find and arrest the soldiers they are sending to the river and the other officers they are sending there," he added . will answer."
“Those who fail should go to jail. If you simultaneously send 1,000 to the prison and another 1,000 to the pipeline supply, you know that the new set is not working as usual.
"But if you send some of them there and they break down and you now move them to another place in Nigeria and then you send another new group there, that new group will repeat what the old group did, or worse."