Almost one year after concluding an investigation on oil theft and stalling on the report, another committee of the House of Representatives has vowed to unravel how Nigeria lost over $10bn to the plague in the last 7 months.
One year after an ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives concluded investigation into oil theft and failing to act on a report laid before plenary, another panel of the parliament has begun another probe.
This time, the probe is chaired by Rep. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa.
Recall that the House had on 19 October, 2023 received a report on oil theft investigation from its ad-hoc committee chaired by Rep. Alhassan Rurum (APC, Kano). The probe emanated from a motion sponsored by Rep. Philip Agbese (APC, Benue).
Declaring the new probe open on Thursday, Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, represented by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, decried the negative impact of oil theft on the nation’s economy. He expressed worry over the quantum of crude losses on a daily basis due to the activities of criminal elements.
He stated: “The statistics on crude oil theft are very alarming, and its negative impact on the economy is quite monumental. For instance, it is estimated that between January and July 2024, Nigeria lost an average of 437,000 barrels of crude oil per day due to theft, vandalism and other criminal activities. At the current price of oil, this translates to over $10bn over the same period.
“Apart from reduced government revenue to address the multi-faceted challenges of national development, other problems associated with crude oil theft include environmental degradation, heightened insecurity in the form of piracy, kidnapping, militancy and vandalism and the shut-down of production by many companies, among others.
“The reduction in government revenue has invariably been responsible for government borrowing to address budget deficits over the years.”
Rep. Alhassan Ado- Doguwa (Kano, APC) noted that the committee’s mandate is to investigate oil theft and the actions of criminal gangs, militia groups, local communities, companies and security agencies.
He said, “our ultimate aim is to employ every legislative tool to unearth the root causes and immediate factors contributing to this crime, bring those complicit to justice and develop sustainable solutions that will safeguard the integrity of our oil sector and promote national development.
“To ensure a thorough investigation, our methodology includes inviting memoranda and presentations from key stakeholders within the oil industry and security sector and engaging in further discussions with international and local oil companies, host community leaders, and relevant agencies.”
Present at the meeting were the chief of defence staff, chief of army staff, chief of air staff, and the inspector general of police, who were all represented by top-rank officers, accompanied by men drawn from the military formations.
In his remarks, secretary to the government of the federation, George Akume reiterated the commitment of the government to secure the nation’s oil and gas infrastructure, noting that in the past four years, over $1.5bn has been spent in this regard.
Represented by the permanent secretary, general services, Maurice Nnamdi, said, “the government has invested considerable resources in combating this menace. Since 2020, expenditure aimed at addressing crude oil theft and securing our oil infrastructure has exceeded $1.5bn. These funds have been allocated towards enhancing surveillance capabilities, securing pipelines, and increasing the presence of law enforcement agencies in critical oil-producing areas.”
He identified corruption as one of the factors working against sustainable development in the oil sector and pledged the readiness of the parliament to assist anti-graft agencies to rid the sector of various economic crimes.
“We are determined to strengthen the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and other anti-corruption agencies to frontally combat corruption in the oil and gas sector,” he assured
