The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has revealed its intention to procure two aircraft dedicated to combatting crude oil theft within the country.
AVM Abdul Ganiyu, the Director of Operations at the Nigerian Air Force, made this announcement during his briefing to the House of Representatives’ Ad-hoc Committee. The committee’s primary focus is investigating oil theft and the associated revenue losses incurred by the federal government.
AVM Ganiyj told lawmakers that the training of pilots to operate the available aircraft and others being expected shortly was in progress and would be ready for deployment before the end of this month.
He called on relevant agencies with the required technology to “locate illegal bunkering sites not to waste time in getting such locations across to NAF”, with an assurance that precision actions will be taken from the force bases to wipe out such sites and their illegal activities.
In its presentation, Nigeria Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) assured NAF of timely information on identified illegal bunkering sites through its highly sensitive monitoring gadgets.
On its part, Nigeria Middle and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency (NMDPRA) blamed bulk of oil and revenue loss on measurement inadequacies at the production line as well as fuel dispensing stage for end users.
