Lawyer and human rights activist Femi Falana SAN has called on oil workers union to prevail on the Nigeria government to recover about $12.7 billion worth of crude oil he said was stolen from Nigeria between 2011 and 2014.
Falana made the call in a speech at the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in Abuja on Thursday.
Falana said he got the crude oil theft data from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and would make the report available to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other stakeholders.
According to him, “The study revealed that the value of the money from oil stolen from Nigeria is $12.7 billion. 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.”
He called on PENGASSAN, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to institute a probe or investigate the volume of crude oil stolen from Nigeria and discharged at ports in the United States, India, China, France and Britain, stating that if the issue was taken seriously, Nigeria would see the return of over $100 billion.
The legal practitioner also challenged the labour unions to look into the Halliburton case to ensure that justice prevailed and the recovered fund was used for the benefit of the country.
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