The Joint Taskforce, Codenamed Operation Restore Hope, in the Niger Delta, on Wednesday challenged Nigerians to make public the names of politicians and other highly placed persons behind illegal refining of crude oil in the region.The reaction of the special security outfit comprising the Police, Army, Navy, Airforce and other paramilitary agencies, followed widespread insinuations that some "big men who were behind the criminal act were being shielded by some powerful forces.In an interview with our correspondent in Warri, the spokesman of the JTF, Lt. Col Timothy Antigha, who declared that it was not enough to say that the "masterminds" of bunkering were influential Nigerians, called on Nigerians to disclose the names of the culprits.The security outfit deployed in the wake of militant activities in the oil-rich area, which resulted in the loss of huge oil revenue accruing to the Federal Government, maintained that the force would only hand over those who were directly involved in the illegality and not on the "basis of mere insinuations."He explained that the JTF had, in the last one month, arrested over 60 illegal bunkerers particularly in Rivers and Abia States, where there had been a resurgence of illegal refineries.He added that since the fresh onslaught on the youths, calm had returned to the waterways and oil facilities in the area were now a lot safer than they were before.He said, "I can tell you that things are now calm across the states of the Niger Delta. Our focus for some time now has been on the activities of crude oil bunkering. We have seized and destroyed several barges in the last one month and arrested over 60 persons."We are operating in the three major states where the activities of these criminals are going on simultaneously and we have vowed to sustain that and that remains the major challenge for now."The suspicion that highly placed Nigerians are responsible for sponsoring these boys has always been there; but we need these people to begin to name these backers. Nigeria belongs to all of us and we have all been beneficiaries of the oil wealth from this region."To sit somewhere and say that those sponsoring these groups are in Abuja or Lagos is not enough. They should name them and we will do the job of picking them up. Those we have seen are the ones we are tackling."He also maintained that the increase in the activities of the military in the area recently led to the prosecution and sentencing of some Nigerians and Ghanaians to 90 years in prison by a Nigerian court.
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