The ongoing meeting by the National Conference may be revealing many of the ills of the society has the Committee on Energy has said that the country is losing about 350,000 barrels of oil per day, estimated at about $35m, to crude oil theft and called on the Federal Government to wake up from its slumber and tackle the menace frontally.
The Chairman of the committee, who is also a former Governor of Oyo State, Alhaji Rashidi Ladoja, stated this while presenting the report of his committee to the plenary in Abuja.
The report, a copy of which was sighted by our correspondents, stated that the issue of oil theft had reached a climax, noting that from its investigations, Nigeria was losing about 350,000 barrels of oil, or $35m daily.
Oil theft, it said, had reached an alarming proportion, adding that the government must fully assert Nigeria’s sovereignty and bring the racket to a stop.
On the state of downstream assets, the committee recommended that “government should, without delay, institute a comprehensive independent technical audit of the entire national products handling/storage/transmission system, and initiate a phased implementation of the findings.”
It also called for “a root-to-branch audit of the entire PPMC logistical system and assets integrity be carried out as a matter of urgency and appropriate remedies mapped out for the phased implementation.”