Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Festus Keyamo has urged the National Assembly to probe alleged massive looting of state resources “by some unscrupulous officials of the NNPC in collusion with some local companies in the oil and gas sector.”
The activist made reference to the crude oil swaps in a statement he released in Lagos and said that it was an arrangement whereby about 50 per cent of the nation’s daily quota of crude oil meant for domestic refining and consumption are given to some local companies in the oil and gas sector which then sell the products in the international market and thereafter import petroleum products, including derivatives or by products on behalf of the NNPC and PPMC for sale and distribution in the country.
He noted that the country’s daily quota of crude oil for local consumption is about 445,000 barrels.
“This arrangement was necessitated by the inability of our local refineries to operate at their fully installed capacities which would have been able to refine all the daily domestic quota of crude oil,” Keyamo stated, adding that the colossal fraud in both programmes have reportedly started and heightened in recent years.
He maintained that the fraud occur, when far less quantity of petroleum products, by products and derivatives are imported into the country by the local companies in exchange for the crude oil allocated to them by the NNPC.
“The staggering shortfalls in the imported products are done with the active connivance, collusion and knowledge of the officials of the NNPC.
“The proceeds are, of course, subsequently shared between the NNPC officials and these local companies. In fact, it is reported that a colossal sum of about $50billion (fifty billion dollars) have been stolen by these people through these fraudulent programmes in the last few years,” he stated.
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