11th October, 2022
By Naomi Sharang
Elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark has called on the Federal Government to institute a judicial inquiry to investigate oil theft in the country following the discovery of a four-kilometre pipeline allegedly being used to siphon crude oil at deep swamps at Yokri, close to the Forcados terminal in Delta.
Clark who made the demand at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday noted that the report had indicated that about 200 hundred barrels of crude oil were been stolen through the illegal pipeline since 2014.
The Ijaw leader who described oil theft as a criminal act said investigation into the oil theft must be full, open and comprehensive and sincere.
He added that such investigation is necessary to unravel the scale of oil theft going on in the country.
The elder statesman said: “My attention and that of the entire country have been drawn to the recent discovery of a large scale and sophisticated oil theft machinery going on at the deep swamps at Yokri, close to the Forcados terminal in Delta.
“According to reports, high powered technological engineering expertise is applied to steal crude oil from the Forcados line.
“This is transported through a four-kilometre pipeline to a platform in the sea, which belongs to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), and its partners.”
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“According to NNPCL, this is part of the 470 thousand barrels of crude oil that is being lost every month, amounting to 700 million Dollars.
“Although, the NNPCL thinks these have been going on in the past 20 years, some of us have always insisted that this oil theft has been going on for much longer, for about 50 years.”
He said that the illicit four kilometers pipeline through which crude oil was being siphoned indicated that oil theft was being perpetuated by some mafia-like groups, with the connivance of some people in the oil industry.
“What is going on is a sophisticated criminal act, carried out by a syndicate,” he said.
Clark further said that the investigation must uncover all government officials including top officials of the NNPCL and their collaborators, who had inflicted such magnitude of harm on the country, and on the Niger Delta communities.
“It is dangerously incredible that crude oil theft, in spite all the securities around, has assumed wider dimension to the extent that the quantity of crude oil we export today is less than the quantity being stolen by a gang of thieves of various designations.”(NAN)
(www.nannews.ng)
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