BY Bunmi Aduloju
The national assembly has called for a decisive move towards curtailing crude oil theft in the country.
Both chambers of the national assembly made the call at their respective plenaries on Tuesday after resuming from their two-month recess.
Ahmad Lawan, president of the senate, said the menace of crude oil theft in the Niger Delta could greatly dwindle the country’s oil revenue generation.
“Revelations about the scale of oil theft shows that until the government takes decisive actions, Nigeria could soon lose any revenue from that sector,” he said.
“We must therefore work to ensure that everything is done to curtail this theft.”
On his part, Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the house of representatives, while delivering his welcome remarks, urged the federal government to treat oil thieves as terrorists by applying stiff measures to dissuade others.
The speaker added that oil theft threatens the survival of the country.
He said the existing arrangement to prevent oil theft has not worked, hence, the federal government must consider other means to curb the menace.
He said the “972,394 bpd for August is the lowest we have recorded in the last two decades”.
“The perpetrators of this brazen heist threaten our ability to serve the Nigerian people and meet the demands of governance and nation-building. Their actions constitute treason against our country, for which they must be held accountable,” Gbajabiamila added.
“There are mechanisms in place to prevent these sorts of bad actors, and the government spends significant amounts of money each year to protect oil and gas resources in the country. Evidently, these existing arrangements do not suffice.”
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