Nigeria Loses $68.6m Of Crude Oil Daily To Theft
By Samuel Ogunsona
Nigeria loses not less than $70m daily to crude oil theft, protesting oil workers have said. Nigeria is currently experiencing shortfall in oil production and sales amidst conflicting figures of how much Nigeria actually produce daily. Oil remains a major pool of corruption and graft in Nigeria, a country blessed with so many natural resources yet is home to some of the poorest people in the world.
The leadership of the Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) are angry that the Nigerian authorities continue to allow the offshore oil scam to continue.
PENGASSAN President, Festus Osifo, addressing journalists in Abuja on Wednesday said soldiers and other security agencies protecting the pipelines in the country have failed.
He said the association is ready to stop production if the theft continues.
PENGASSAN is planning rallies in the four cities of Warri, Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna to press home their grievances over the continuous stealing of public funds by international oil cartels with the collaboration of greedy business men and inept security operatives.
Osifo who called for immediate investigation and prosecution of officers assigned to protect the pipelines also said a lot of legitimate oil business companies have folded due to illicit financial oil deals.
He said, “If after this rally there is no traceable progress, as an association, we may be forced to withdraw our workforce from the operating companies, because we cannot continuously send crude oil into the pipelines and at the end of the day the pipelines are vandalised by people who don’t know how the oil was produced.
“Some of these pipeline vandals, when you stop production into a line, they call our members and threaten them, asking our members why they stopped production into the line and that they should open the line.
“So, the lives of our members are even at risk. For someone to have your phone number and call you, that means the person knows you. Therefore, we can no longer condone this, government must sit up.”
