Emmanuel Masha 
The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to put a stop to oil theft and boost security in the Niger Delta and the Gulf of Guinea by supporting the call for artisanal refining.
YEAC-Nigeria campaigns against pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, and environmental pollution in the Niger Delta made the call in a communique issued on Thursday.
The group’s executive director, Fyneface Dunamene Fyneface, who issued a communique at a conference on Organized Crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea (NACOCINAG), declared that those behind oil theft will be out of business if Tinubu ensures that local communities are organized to function as stakeholders in artisanal oil refining.
The communique also stressed the need for: “Immediate establishment of a Coast-Guard Mechanism to be known as Nigeria Coast and Boarder Guards (NCBG) that collapses all government-private security arrangements into a standby supportive maritime and borderline security mechanism against organized crime, especially crude oil theft and illegal bunkering..”
According to the group, the move would also “mitigate the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, among others, to strengthen homeland security efforts.”
The communique urged Tinubu to ensure that the approved 18 Modular Refineries licenses former President Muhammadu Buhari approved for artisanal refiners in the Niger Delta get the nod to function and “mitigate organized crime and support sustainable youth empowerment.”
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It adds: “The establishment of a Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative (PACORDI) proposed by YEAC-Nigeria for the innovation, modernization, standardization, legalization, and integration of artisanal refineries into the national economy as a corresponding organized crime mitigation mechanism for artisanal crude oil refiners in the Niger Delta, like the illegal gold miners in parts of North and Western Nigeria that the presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMI) is established for them to mitigate organized crime in gold mining.”
The group also called on the president to partner “with other Presidents in other countries in the Gulf of Guinea for the establishment of an effective task force against organized crime to be known as “Taskforce Against Organized Crime in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea (TAOCINAG)”
It also expressed the readiness of YEAC-Nigeria to partner with the National Security Adviser, the service chiefs to strengthen the fight against organized crime in the Niger Delta, Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea.