Mele Kyari Accuses Churches, Mosques Of Housing Stolen Crude Oil

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, has accused several employees as well as security forces, religious figures, and government officials of stealing the country's crude oil.

Kyari, stated that the threat affects every part of society while speaking during the 49th session of the weekly ministerial meeting at the State House in Abuja.

He claimed that there has been a network of vandals working together wherever the stolen goods have been discovered, which are typically 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 individuals’ 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.

“That means that everybody is involved. There is no way you will take products, bring them in trucks in populated neighbourhoods, 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.

“They are everywhere. And I’ve seen this even in the Niger Delta.

"There’s no way you would deliver a volume and lose up to 30 per cent and you will continue to put those products in this line.”

Due to the vandals' actions, the NNPC boss said that the nation's entire network of pipelines for the distribution of petroleum products has been shut down.

The Group CEO declared that a national reserve firm will be founded to handle the pipelines on a commercial basis and effectively utilise them for the transportation of goods across the nation in order to further address the threat.

He asserts that although it has been extremely challenging to handle crude oil theft, which has led to the discovery of 295 unlawful connections and made it impossible for oil companies to operate effectively, they are not powerless.

He promised that the country's energy poverty will be eliminated by fully embracing the gas infrastructure.