Human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) on Thursday alleged that $12.7bn worth of crude oil was stolen from the country between 2011 and 2014.
Falana spoke at the 40th anniversary celebration of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in Abuja.
The senior advocate also called for the immediate recovery from oil companies, royalties that ought to have accrued to the Federation Account since 2014.
He also called on PENGASSAN to prevail on the anti-corruption agencies to probe and trace the funds, as well as determine the culprits.
The lawyer said the crude oil theft data was released by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and promised to make the report available to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other stakeholders.
"The study revealed that the value of the money from oil stolen from Nigeria is $12.7bn. The oil was discharged in one port. We have identified who the oil majors are and the shipping companies involved; but since 2014, we have been begging the Nigerian government to recover the money,” Falana stated.
He urged PENGASSAN, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to investigate the volume of crude oil stolen from the country and discharged at ports in the United States, India, China, France and Britain, noting that if the issue was taken seriously, Nigeria would see the return of over $100bn.
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