The Nigerian Navy has said that the country loses an estimated N433 billion
annually to crude oil theft due to poor law enforcement presence in the
waterways.
The Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Usman Jubrin, made the disclosure on
Tuesday in Abuja, when he defended its 2015 budget proposal before the
Senate Committee on Navy.
Jibrin, represented by the Chief of Logistics, Rear Adm Peter Agba, credited
the statistics to recent revelation made by Chatham House, London.
He said the statistics did not include the amount of oil suspected to have
been stolen from export pipelines, cost of oil spillage cleanup, loss of income
to fishing communities and environmental degradation.
“The Nigerian Navy is constitutionally tasked with the protection of our
maritime assets and recently the Chatham House revealed that Nigerian
crude oil is being stolen at an industrial scale.
“It conservatively estimates that about 100,000 barrel per day, valued at
N1.18 billion is stolen daily due to poor law enforcement presence, which is
translated to N433.62 billion annually,” he said.
Jubrin also attributed the inability of the Navy to curb criminality in the
nation’s waters to lack of adequate funding, and called for better funding of
the service, adding that going by the 2015 over head cost proposal of seven
billion naira, the service would find it difficult to maintain sufficient presence
on the nation’s waters.
He said the Navy required N205 billion as capital budget for 2015 but based
on the envelop system, it submitted only a capital budget of eight billion
naira. Jubrin said that this represented 96 per cent reduction.
“The Nigerian Navy appreciates the financial constraints of the Federal Government but wishes to point out the importance and economic benefits of an improved funding.
“The Nigerian Navy, therefore, in the nearest future will be craving the indulgence of the National Assembly to make its capital asset acquisition a first line charge to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
“We are also making a case for the establishment of a Naval Trust Fund to
enhance our operations,” he said.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Navy, Sen. Chris Anyanwu (PDP-Imo
East), expressed concern over the statistics issued by Chatham House on the
rate of annual crude oil theft in Nigeria.
Anyanwu stressed the need for better funding for the Navy to enable it curb
the increased level of crude oil theft.
“What country can lose this kind of asset and still stay whole. That explains
what is really happening in the country today.
“In view of the huge loss of crude oil, I agree with the Navy in the argument
that expenditure in the Navy should be seen as an economic expenditure,”
Anyanwu said.
She further commended the effort of the Navy in living up to its mandate in
spite of poor funding.
“I see the statistics of what you have been doing in terms of seizures. You
seized 84 vessels and 155 oil thieves were arrested.
“That is something significant and I want to applaud the current leadership
for his effort,” she said, adding that there is need for the next National
Assembly to establish a Trust Fund for the Navy to enable it discharge its
duties effectively.

http://leadership.ng/news/415175/oil-theft-nigeria-loses-n433bn-yearly-naval-chief
http://www.today.ng/news/nigeria-loses-n433bn-to-crude-oil-theft-annually-navy/

Instead of this to have been checked on time,innocent Nigerians have to bear the brunt of the pain. The recent & on going hike in fuel price just makes it worse

we loose bìllions ín crude oìl theft. When billions are paid to tompolo, asari, ateke yearly to prevent crude oìl theft. Those who intend to vote pdp on d 28th of march my questìons are; do you want the continued payment of billions to these ex thugs as protection fee? Do you want nigeria to loose over 2trillion ìn crude oil theft? If your answer is honestly yes then you are irredeemable.