$7b racket: Nigeria moves to rein in oil thieves

•Refining crude oil illegally is big business in the Niger Delta

•Refining crude oil illegally is big business in the Niger Delta

Governor Godswill Akpabio of the southern Nigerian state of Akwa Ibom has been appointed as the head of the Committee saddled with the task of finding solution to massive theft of crude oil which is now estimated to be costing Nigeria about $7 billion loss in revenue annually.

A task force that will prosecute oil thieves has also been set up.

Both decisions were announced at the end of Thursday’s meeting of National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by Vice-President, Namadi Sambo.

•Refining crude oil illegally is big business in the Niger Delta
•Refining crude oil illegally is big business in the Niger Delta
Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta state who briefed journalists after the meeting said the state chief executives are worried by the continuous loss of over 400,000 barrels of oil per day to oil thieves.

He said the committee set up by NEC will meet with oil majors and the Joint Task Force (JTF) to work out modalities for the effective repair of the Nembe and Trans Niger pipelines which are currently shut down due to leakages.

GOVS. IBRAHIM DANKWAMBO OF GOMBE; EMMANUEL UDUAGHAN OF  DELTA, AND MURTALA NYAKO OF ADAMAWA, BRIEFING STATE HOUSE  CORRESPONDENTS AFTER THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL MEETING IN  ABUJA ON THURSDAY
GOVS. IBRAHIM DANKWAMBO OF GOMBE; EMMANUEL UDUAGHAN OF DELTA, AND MURTALA NYAKO OF ADAMAWA, BRIEFING STATE HOUSE
CORRESPONDENTS AFTER THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL MEETING IN ABUJA ON THURSDAY
The Task Force which will be headed by Mohammed Adoke, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation is expected to use relevant laws, particularly the miscellaneous offences Act which carries a sentence of 21 years without option of fine to prosecute those arrested for theft of crude oil.

Udughan said the establishment of task force was one of the decisions reached after a technical level meeting with key stakeholders and relevant security agencies with the Akpabio Committee.

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Uduaghan said Akpabio, the Secretary to National Planning Commission, the head of the extractive industry transparency initiative, NEITI, and a representative of the Inspector-General of Police will meet with Adoke to devise ways of strengthening the extant deterrence policy by ensuring more arrests and convictions of the oil thieves.

Uduaghan said the task force is to be made up of representatives of NNPC, the Armed Forces, Civil Defence, Police, State Security Service, and other related agencies. The task force is to be in force for one year with effect from July, 2013.

Adoke will announce members of the task force on Monday and prosecution of established cases will continue with all convictions given wide publicity.

The council received a memorandum on the thorny issue of grazing reserves from the Governor of Adamawa state, Admiral Murtala Murtala Nyako (retd.) who impressed it on the Council that tackling the problem will help Nigeria guarantee food security.

Also, Nyesom Wike, the Minister of State for education presented an update on the implementation of the Almajiri education programme to the Council.

The Minister told the Governors that 80 schools have already been built nationwide to address the problem of the high number of out of school children.

While commending the progress on the issue, the Council recommended the take-off of academic programmes in the completed schools by the next academic calendar in September, 2013.

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