The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, has accused religious leaders, security agencies, and even some NNPC staff of the theft of the nation’s crude oil.
The NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Kyari said this during the 49th session of the weekly ministerial brief at the State House in Abuja, stressing that oil theft is largely carried out by Nigerians.
Kyari disclosed that the stolen products, pipelines are found mostly in churches and mosques.
“When a fire outbreak happened in one of our pipelines, we discovered that some of the pipelines were actually connected to individual’s homes. And not only that, and with all sensitivity to our religious beliefs, you know, some of the pipelines and some of the products that we found, are actually in churches and in mosques,” Kyari said.
“This means that everybody is involved. There’s no way you will take products, bring them in trucks in populated neighborhoods, load them, and leave without everybody else knowing about it. Everybody includes members of the community, members of the religious leaders and also and most likely government officials of all natures, including security agencies personnel.”
Kyari revealed that vandalism has led to the shut down of the entire network of pipelines for petroleum products distribution in Nigeria.
The NNPC Boss mentioned that a national reserve company will be established to manage the pipelines on a commercial basis to efficiently put them to use for the distribution of products across the country.
