The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, expressed serious concern on Wednesday over the report indicating a yearly revenue loss of N1.29 trillion due to large-scale oil theft in Nigeria.
Hon. Abbas who expressed the concern during the inauguration of the Special Committee on Oil Theft chaired by Hon. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, who tasked the Special Committee to unravel the “criminal elements sabotaging our nation.”
While expressing displeasure over the import of the criminal activities on the nation’s economy, Hon. Abbas reiteres the 10th House resolve towards tackling “one of the largest threats to Nigeria’s economy.
“It is estimated that Nigeria loses over 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day due to theft, vandalism, and other criminal activities. Some of the severe consequences of this include revenue loss, environmental disaster, threats to regional peace and security, proliferation of arms, and a poor investment climate.
“The nation is reported to incur losses of oil revenues estimated at N1.29 trillion annually due to industrial-scale theft. Therefore, this committee’s primary objective is to determine the proximate and remote causes of oil theft and recommend remedial measures to the House.
“Nigeria is facing significant financial challenges due to a combination of rising expenditures and falling revenues. You may recall that the proposed revenue and expenditure for 2023 stand at N9.73 trillion and N20.51 trillion, respectively. This means a fiscal deficit of N10.78 trillion, which is about 4.78% of the GDP. This deficit is the largest in Nigeria’s history, and with a budget more than double the proposed revenue, we are faced with the challenge of borrowing to cover the gap.
In his remarks, Chairman of the Special Committee on Crude Oil theft, Hon. Alhassan Ado-Doguwa observed that issue of crude oil theft is of significance national importance and the House of Representatives have taken an important and bold step to check and tame the tide of this unfortunate development.
While noting that the challenges may appear enormous, he expressed optimism that with the political will of the House leadership and Members, the Committee can surmount the myriad of challenges and rewrite these tales of woes to that of blossoming prosperity.
Hon. Ado-Doguwa assured Nigerians that the Committee will engage stakeholders in the entire hydrocarbon value chain so that together we will begin to rollback the evil effects of the criminal enterprise of oil theft and pipeline vandalism. Together we will overcome and such reports of inability to put the nation’s oil pipelines to effective use, breaches at the flow stations, compromises at the loading/export terminals, dangers of non- decommissioned and abandoned oil wells will begin to recede.”
To this end, he solicited for the cooperation and support of every stakeholder in the oil and gas sector, the security sector and indeed every Nigerian and other nationals residing and doing business in Nigeria in the bid to ensure that the Committee delivers on the mandate.