Rivers Administrator Vice-Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd) and the Senate Committee on Incessant Crude oil theft have called for effective prosecution of oil thieves and deployment of digital surveillance to tackle economic sabotage on the country.

Ibas and the committee spoke on Friday when the Committee’s Chairman, Senator Ned Nwoko led other members to visit the administrator in Government House, Port Harcourt.

The administrator in a statement by the Senior Special Adviser, Media, Rivers State Government, Hector Igbikiowubo, said weak punishment for offenders emboldened criminality, depriving the nation of critical revenue needed for development.

He said: “Your presence here is both significant and timely. Crude oil theft strikes at the heart of Nigeria’s economic survival, undermining President Bola Tinubu’s reforms to boost oil production and fund national infrastructure”.

He commended the committee’s mandate to investigate oil theft across producing states and terminals, expressing confidence that their recommendations would strengthen Nigeria’s economic base.

Ibas said Rivers was tackling pipeline vandalism through:

Improved intelligence gathering and inter-agency coordination and structured engagements with traditional rulers and community stakeholders.

Ibas said the government was planning deployment of digital surveillance systems over oil installations.

He said: “As a major oil-producing state, we are committed to eliminating threats to production. Our goal is a secure, tech-driven monitoring framework to safeguard assets and boost output”.

Ibas said to tackle oil theft nationally, the government must ensure convicted oil thieves face deterrent penalties; fix faulty metering; strengthen the Nigerian Navy and maritime agencies and expand monitoring to backwaters and international waters.

In his remarks, Senator Ned Nwoko affirmed the committee’s resolve to identify and dismantle theft networks, both onshore and offshore.

“We need Rivers State’s support to end this menace. Big-time thieves operate in international waters, and we must collaborate to secure Nigeria’s resources”.

He said the committee, inaugurated three months ago, would submit actionable solutions to the National Assembly to sanitize the oil sector.