by crossriverwatch admin
Petroleum Management Consultant and Environmental Advocate, Prince Emmanuel Usanga has berated the Joint Task Force JTF over their decision to burn petroleum products seized from criminals involved in illegal bunkering activities.
The task force had early this week seized and burned huge quantity of diesel along with a colonial building in Calabar which bandits used to house their stolen crude products.
But in a reaction, Prince Usanga told crossriverwatch: “It was alarming to read on the publication today in crossriverwatch that the Operation Pulo Shield commanded by Navy Commodore Kingdom Itoko of NNS Victory would commit the double sin of burning 100,000 liters of pirated diesel and set ablaze an historical colonial building used as a warehouse by the pirates.
The later act is the greater sin and is unforgivable. How can a historical artifact be razed just because some criminals have decided to take over this neglected tourism and historical landmark?
Elsewhere this building would have been well maintained and the antique furniture of that era put in place as a museum for tourism and part of Calabar national heritage. It is shocking in the first instance that the tourism conscious administrators of Cross River State would have allowed this error of negligence to occur at all.
As a matter of national priority all such colonial buildings should be seen as potential world heritage sites and it is criminal for Nigerian governments to destroy or disfigure them, not to mention a security task force setting any of them ablaze. On the burning of the diesel as a crime, we should recognize that whether the Fuel came from local refineries, pipelines or imported, it is an attack on the ecosystem to emit avoidable carbon waste into the atmosphere.
What the task force should do is to organize a public auction of the seized products to preserve the carbon chain value and then destroy the hardware by sending or selling the steel hull to a recycling plant. We should not turn our environment into an eyesore or degrade the ecosystem in the course of fighting crime or instilling discipline in the society. Two short-sighted crimes do not create sustainable economic justice”.