Arepo: Fish out sponsors of militants

For many days last week, the mangrove creeks around Arepo in Ogun State bordering Lagos was thrown into an orgy of killings and other heinous crimes by oil pipeline vandals who had made the place their operational base for stealing oil. They had started their reign of terror by abducting the Oniba of Iba, Oba Yushau Goriola Osen, and later proceeded on a shooting spree at Ewedogbon, located about five minutes away from Iba town.
In response to the outrage of militants’ siege on the area, a combined team of security forces engaged them in a protracted five day battle with heavy assault on the suspects’ camps. The operation led to the death of scores of militants as well as several arrests of their members. The security forces also suffered some casualties, with some soldiers losing their lives and others sustaining injuries.

Even as the militants have been chased out of the area the final word on resumption of hostilities or otherwise is yet to be heard as by the admission of the military, the area is still not fully cleared of the miscreants. Last week, the Acting Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Kpotun Idris could not visit the area for the same reason.
The Arepo violence is another painful reminder of the rather tardy state of security around the nation’s critical infrastructure, especially with respect to the oil and gas assets. As evidence shows, the Arepo violence was just one of the unattended flashpoints in the country just waiting to manifest into full blown crisis. The area has been a known location for the organised vandalization of pipelines and the theft of oil, to which the security forces turned a blind eye. Its eruption at a time the nation is contending with a similar problem in the Niger Delta had led some observers to associate it in error with
the Niger Delta militants. From their mode of operation, it is clear that the Arepo assailants are ordinary oil thieves, with no ideological attachment to their nefarious mission.
Yet the security forces deserve commendation for rising up to the occasion and suppressing the outbreak of violence by these vagrants, even as there are various reports of the unwarranted death of innocent civilians who were caught in the crossfire between them and the militants. But for their decisive intervention the likely spill over of panic from the crisis into neighbouring Lagos would have been problematic, to say the least.
A major lesson from the Arepo crisis is the need for intensified efforts by the authorities towards intelligence-led security strategies and proactive responses aimed at nipping in the bud potential flashpoints to save the nation from the problem of adopting fire brigade measures when trouble may have started. The lesson is not lost that virtually every location hosting oil facilities offers attraction to would be vandals to exploit.
That is why the nation’s approach to the security of these facilities needs to be based on a robust framework that ensures early warning and decisive response that minimises both direct and collateral damages to the country. In that respect the Arepo crisis should be thoroughly investigated with the full involvement of the communities who should be encouraged to assist the security forces in ensuring the overall safety of critical public infrastructure in their vicinity. It is feared that corrupt military personnel and prominent community leaders may have armed and provided cover for the vandals over the years as they may be the beneficiaries of the criminal activities of the militants. A thorough investigation could provide a lead on the sponsors of the vandals. Whether in the military, political or business sectors, they should be fished out and punished.
The perennial vandalisation of oil pipelines and other critical public facilities that are spread over a wide expanse of Nigeria has made it imperative for government to expand its surveillance threshold by engaging cutting edge security options, including hi-tech electronic monitoring systems.