The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, has accused government officials, religious leaders, security agencies of crude oil theft.
This was made known during the 49th session of the weekly ministerial briefly at the State House in Abuja,
Speaking during the session, NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari also accused some of its staff of being involved in the menace.
Kyari accused the general public of aiding such crimes as they are aware of such vandalism in their neighborhoods and still do nothing about it.
“When a fire outbreak happened in one of our pipelines, we discovered that some of the pipelines were actually connected to individuals’ homes. And not only that, and with all sensitivity to our religious beliefs, you know, some of the pipelines and some of the products that we found, are actually in churches and in mosques,” Kyari said.
“That means that everybody is involved. There is no way you will take products, bring them in trucks in populated neighborhoods, load them, and leave without everybody else knowing about it. Everybody includes members of the community, members of the religious leaders and also and most likely government officials of all natures, including security agencies personnel.
“They are everywhere. And I’ve seen this even in the Niger Delta. There’s no way you would deliver a volume and lose up to 30 percent and you will continue to put those products in this line.”
The NNPC chief also announce the shutdown of the entire network of pipelines for petroleum products distribution in the country.
He added that a national reserve company will be created to oversee the pipelines on a commercial basis thereby ensuring they are put to use for the distribution of products across the country.
