The National President of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN),has alleged that the military and other security agencies were aiding and abetting criminals to steal the crude with the active connivance of the regulatory agencies in charge of the nation’s petroleum industry.
He spoke on Wednesday at the Senate Ad-hoc Committee, mandated to investigate Oil Lifting, Theft and the impact on Petroleum Production and Oil Revenues,where he also
explained that oil theft is collaborative crime between military personnel assigned to protect oil installations and the locals running illegal refineries.
Osifo specifically alleged that men of the Amphibious Brigade in Port Harcourt and their counterparts in the Navy in connivance with superior officers at different times, joined the locals in the theft.
He said: “One of the greatest problems we have, which nobody has highlighted is that there is a strong connivance of our security forces in the crime .There is no doubt about this. From our Army to our Naval officers, we have information that they pay their superiors to post them to some areas in the Niger Delta .
“I can authoritatively inform this committee that men of the Nigerian Army and the Navy pay their superiors to be posted to Niger Delta.Even when the former Commander of the Amphibious Brigade in Port Harcourt was removed, many of the men in the Command resisted to be posted out due to lucrativeness of their operational areas .
“I think the people who have solution to this problem are not even the one sitting here. They are the ones you will invite behind the camera.”
In his submission before the Senate Committee, while explaining further what is been stolen, the Executive Commissioner, Corporate Services and Administration in
Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC),Mr Jide Adeola, disclosed that the total revenue loss to oil theft is $2.1billion or N877billion.
Narrating what the nation has lost so far, NUPRC said that as at today, Nigeria produces 1.23million barrels of crude oil per day as against 1.8million barrels targeted, leading to total revenue loss as at today, to be $2.1billion or N877billion.
He added what is being stolen is about 95.4million litres per day or 600,000 barrels, since a barrel contains 159litres.
Expressing concern over this development, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Bassey Akpan (YPP Akwa Ibom North East), said, “I’ve never seen economic sabotage of this magnitude and it must be stopped.”
He added that “the required political will through instrumentality of legislative intervention shall surely be done after meeting other critical stakeholders like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited ( NNPCL), the military etc.”
