Expose thieves, criminal gangs stealing Nigeria’s oil, Elemelu tells FG

Billionaire Nigerian businessman, Tony Elumelu, has challenged the federal government and security agents to expose the oil thieves ferrying out the country’s crude.

He gave the challenge in an interview published by the Financial Times.

The development, he noted, is responsible for the divestment of international oil companies in the country.

Daily Trust reports that many multinational oil companies operating in Nigeria for decades have exited the country lately.

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Others have also divested into agricultural and other sectors.

Elumelu, through his Heirs Holdings, has a huge investment in the oil sector.

He said the menace of criminal gangs stealing crude from pipelines was responsible for the development.

“I discovered first-hand why international oil companies were partly divesting from onshore assets after criminal gangs began stealing crude from my pipelines”, he said.

While expressing optimism over the situation, Elumelu during the Financial Times interview, said “42,000 barrels of crude are pumped out daily. Theft still takes away about 18 percent of production from our field.”

He said the government should know and be able to reveal those behind the massive oil heist in the country.

“This is oil theft, we’re not talking about stealing a bottle of Coke you can put in your pocket. The government should know, they should tell us. Look at America — Donald Trump was shot at and quickly they knew the background of who shot him. Our security agencies should tell us who is stealing our oil. You bring vessels to our territorial waters and we don’t know?”