The Federal Government has spent over $1.5 billion to protect Nigeria’s oil installations and curb crude oil theft.
George Akume, the Secretary of the Government of the Federation, SGF, made the disclosure on Thursday, at a public hearing of the House of Representatives on crude oil theft.
The SGF, who was represented by Maurice Nandi, the Permanent Secretary, General Services, revealed that the FG was worried about the report of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI.
NEITI had stated that over $46 billion worth of crude was stolen between 2009 and 2020.
Reacting to the report, he explained that “The FG was concerned about the report. The House Representative had set up a special committee headed by Ado Doguwa, the Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Upstream, to investigate the losses in the oil and gas sector.”
Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, who was also represented by Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, said “$10 billion has been lost to crude oil theft in seven months, and no magic can be done by the government with such a loss.”