The Federal Government has revealed that it has expended over $1.5 billion since 2020 to safeguard the country’s oil infrastructure and combat crude oil theft.
According to The PUNCH, the Secretary of the Government of the Federation, George Akume, disclosed this information on Thursday during a public hearing held by the House of Representatives on crude oil theft.
Akume’s statement was delivered by the Permanent Secretary for General Services, Maurice Nandi.
“The Federal Government was concerned about the report from the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), which pointed to over $46 billion worth of stolen crude between 2009 and 2020.
“The House had set up a special committee, headed by the Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Upstream, Ado Doguwa, to investigate the losses in the oil and gas sector,” Akume said.
In addition, the Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, represented by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, noted that $10 billion has been lost in seven months due to crude oil theft, emphasizing that no immediate solutions could recover such significant losses.
