Government Officials Still Stealing Our Crude Oil - Buhari

ABUJA, NIGERIA - President Muhammadu Buhari has regretted that crude oil theft that characterised past governments was still thriving under his government. He expressed his regrets on Monday on Good Morning Nigeria, an NTA breakfast show.

The President, who was inaugurated on May 29, said the nation's crude was still being lifted illegally by government officials up until July 10.

He said the situation, which he described as a monumental fraud, was beyond comprehension.

He expressed the confidence that some developed countries would assist Nigeria to identify and repatriate looted funds.

This, he said, would however not be achieved without meeting some conditions.

He said:

The multiparty democracy system for developing countries has its advantages and relative disadvantages in the sense that for us to get the help of the developed countries, we have to get our facts: documents, complete and reliable investigation, take them to court and get these people prosecuted.

Meanwhile, the theft continues. Up to the 10th of this month, our crude is still being illegally lifted by people who are in government.

We are trying to get these documents; we are getting cooperation from the international community. We are going very soon to make sure that those who perpetrated this crime against Nigeria will be faced with facts and be taken to our courts.

We have got the cooperation of some of the countries that are the destinations of our crude and we are discussing with them. We have to maintain high confidentiality so that we don’t risk some of the people in Nigeria that are helping us to trace the destinations of this stolen crude and then the accounts where the proceeds are being paid instead of the Federal Government account.

I don't think the NNPC knows how many accounts are there in which payments are made on Nigerian crude. The monumental fraud has been going on for a number of years; a lot of Nigerians cannot comprehend it.

Buhari admitted that the task of getting looted funds repatriated had not been an easy one.

While saying his government was working hard to meet the demands of the foreign countries, the President promised that he would be updating Nigerians of developments as far as the repatriation process was concerned.

He said:

The countries are willing but I also said it has to comply with their own system; we have to get the documents, especially the shipping documents, how they load here in our terminals and the destinations.

Some of them even change the crude or the destinations on the high sea and then change the account, instead of the Federal Government account, they pay into individual accounts.

The cooperation we need is that once we get those shipping documents and we are lucky to trace them up to the countries where they sold the crude and which account it goes, then we will submit the evidence in terms of loading, the payment made and the account.

Once we do these, they are very willing to make sure that all those accounts are frozen and money repatriated to Nigeria.

It is not an easy process but I assure you that we are working very hard. We cannot say we will wait until when everything is completed. Whatever we are able to get in a couple of months, we will bring it out for Nigerians to know.

On the planned breaking of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Buhari said the best way to go was to first establish the magnitude of the inexplicable way the NNPC had conducted itself.

He said after doing that, his administration would be on a higher moral ground to implement whatever recommendations made to it.

Buhari traced the continued problem of fuel scarcity to the destruction of infrastructure.

Buhari said:

The problem of fuel scarcity is one of the problems. We all know we used to have four refineries refining daily on the average of about 450,000 barrels per day.

We had 25 depots all over the country from Maiduguri to Ilorin, from Gusau to Yola, from Makurdi to Port Harcourt to Ibadan.

These entire infrastructure have virtually been vandalised and Nigerians are forced to buy products from world markets as if Nigeria hasn't invested in the industry. This is sheer corruption and inefficiency.

This situation cannot be undone overnight. Firstly, we have to organise with our partners who had been developing the petroleum sector.

Nigeria was consistently losing on a daily basis millions of dollars. I think those who have been operating in the industry have been displaying lack of conscience and patriotism. Only God knows the amount of damage done to Nigeria.

Buhari said he discussed the issues of unemployment, insecurity and corruption with President Barack Obama when he visited the United States last week.

He said he was impressed with the concern raised by the US and Europe about the situation in Nigeria.

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28 Jul 2015