Jonathan summons S/South govs over oil theft

During the meeting held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the president called for a lasting solution to oil theft within the shortest possible period.
Briefing State House correspondents on the outcome of the meeting, Petroleum Resources Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke said Jonathan summoned all the relevant stakeholders including the governors of affected states, multinational chiefs, service chiefs, the NPDC,   NNPC and other ministers to discuss the very critical issue of crude oil theft.
She said the president expressed concern that oil theft has been affecting revenue accruing to the Federation Account from the sale of crude oil.
Describing the meeting as fruitful, Alison-Madueke said the stakeholders resolved to address the problem in an in-depth manner and over the next 10 days.
“We are continuing with what has been done, but we are becoming much more aggressive… A technical team is going to meet across all the stakeholders to break into various committees. The meeting has begun intense deliberation which we have been carrying out in other ways and means over the last one year or so particularly with the Navy and the JTF”, the minister disclosed
Also speaking, Delta State governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan expressed optimism that oil theft would soon end. “After this meeting, we should look forward to reduction in the quantity of oil that is being stolen from Nigeria. The challenge we have now is that a lot more oil is being stolen than we use to have and that is affecting the economy of the country- less funds coming as revenue. You know our economy is still dependent on oil, until we move it away from oil that is why some of us are emphasizing the issue of creating an economy beyond oil”.