Nigeria: $25b lost to oil theft, piracy

Huge scale of crime apparent. 

Nigeria loses $25b yearly to oil theft, sea piracy

Posted by: Oluwakemi Dauda

The Federal Government loses about $25 billion yearly to oil theft, sea piracy and poaching, The Nation has learnt.

A breakdown showed that $800 million is lost to poaching, $9 billion to piracy and $15.5 billion to oil theft.

The rate of pollution of the waters from Lagos to the oil-producing Southsouth is also high.

Speaking with The Nation after presenting a paper on the Legality of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and its Protocols on the partnership between Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Air Force, Matthew Egbadon, a former staff of NIMASA said the amount the country is losing is huge. He called for the sharing of information by the security agencies to stem criminalities on the waters and make it safe.

He  raised the alarm that over 70 per cent of about eight million illegal arms and ammunition in West Africa are in Nigeria. He urged the government to pay attention to policing of the waters because of the huge number of arms and ammunition in circulation.

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Source: thenationonlineng.net