Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbjabimiala, has said the country may lose $23 billion to crude oil theft in 2023.
He said this amidst concerns that the country may not meet the proposed crude oil production target of 1.69 million barrels per day as a result of myriad of issues including vandalism and unreasonable operational cost.
The speaker stated this, in Abuja, yesterday, while declaring open an investigative hearing organised by the House Ad-ho Committee investigating alleged loss of over $2.4 billion revenue from illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil in 2015, including crude oil exports from 2014 till date.
Gbjabimiala, while commending the Federal Government for coming up with the Whistleblower policy, noted that there was no statutory backing for it. Consequently, he promised that parliament would enact a law to give legal backing to the policy.
According to him, “in the light of dwindling revenue accruing to Nigeria from crude oil sales, it was quite alarming to learn about whistleblower allegations that over $2.4 billion in possible revenue by the country was lost from the sale of 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s crude oil cargoes in China.
“While it is imperative to highlight that these are unverified allegations, the onus is on the House of Representatives as a responsible House of the Nigerian people to carry out a thorough investigation to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of these allegations including an investigation into crude oil exports from Nigeria from 2014-2022 to ascertain the accuracy of recorded revenue from sales during this period, the utilisation of this revenue and identify any likely additional losses in revenue to the country.
“While it is commendable that this administration introduced a whistleblower policy in 2016 and has confirmed recovery of significant proceeds of corruption from its implementation, the policy is without statutory backing and the receipt and expenditure of these proceeds does appear to conform with constitutional provisions and the payment of compensation does not appear to be transparent.
“The recommendation of the Committee after its investigation will no doubt, guide the House in making an informed decision in considering the Whistle-Blower Bill currently before it. The legislation when passed into law will address mirage of issues associated with the implementation of the policy as well as take adequate care of the whistle-Blowers involved, which is very significant in the success of the policy and law when passed.”
Meanwhile, the House Ad-hoc Committee investigating alleged loss of over $2.4 billion revenue from illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil in 2015, including crude oil exports from 2014 till date has summoned the Secretary to Government of the Federation
(SGF), Boss Mustapha over implementation Federal Government Whistle Blowers policy.
The panel also summoned the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation ( AGF), Abubakar Malami, the Minister of Finance and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed and other stakeholders involved in the implementation of the Whistleblower policy to appear before it.
Chairman of the panel, Mark Gbillah, issued the summon, at an investigative hearing organised by the panel.
Gbillah said it was imperative for all those summoned to appear to shed light on the implementation of the Whistleblower policy.
The lawmaker added that the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission and Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, as well as the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation are equally expected to appear before the committee.
