By Abubakar Yunusa
A group, Nigeria Citizens Watch for Good Governance, has petitioned the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC),Dr Musa Aliyu to investigate irregularities in the number of barrels of crude oil produced per day in Nigeria.
Group in a statement jointly signed by its National President, Collins Eshiofeh, and Secretary-General, Mohammed Grema Adamu, said, “We write to dig deep and verify the irregularities in figures announced by the GCEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL).”
According to the statement, Mele Kyari recently announced that the figure stands at around 1.6 million barrels per day, while there are allegations that the figure is around two million barrels per day.
“Nigerians are worried and therefore question the irregularities in figures and need to know the truth.
“We find it very ironic that despite all the different security outfits (Civil Defence, Military, Private Contractors, etc.) claimed to be guarding and protecting the national assets, as stated by the NNPC Chief, there is still a decline in Nigeria’s crude oil production attributed to oil theft and vandalism.
“We ask, what role are these security outfits playing, and which facilities are they protecting? Nigerians demand an answer.
“The National Assembly should be invited to note these irregularities, and the GMD of NNPCL, all the International Oil Companies operating in Nigeria, and other relevant stakeholders should, as a matter of urgency, investigate these irregularities in the declaration of figures of barrels of crude oil produced per day in order to match declared figures with actual data pumped out for sale by all IOCs.
“The National Assembly should immediately direct the use of the latest modern technology by the management of NNPCL to keep accurate data of our crude oil production quantum.
“EFCC, ICPC, and other relevant anti-corruption agencies should be immediately invited where there are discrepancies in these declared figures to do the needful in order to clean up the mess in Nigeria’s oil sector so as to enable us to meet our daily OPEC allocation.
“As the country’s economic mainstay, we plead with you to investigate this matter and make sure there are no irregularities and that the number of barrels declared are actually the number of barrels produced for the sake of revenue generation and to block all revenue leakages,” he said.
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