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Nigeria’s Stolen Crude Sold In China At $2.4b Raises Dust
About 48 million of Nigeria’s crude oil Barrels that were stolen and sold in China at about $2.4 billion dollars has sparked a protest at the premises of the legislative arm of the country.
Nigeria is known for persistent crude oil theft. The organised crime cannot be undertaken by people outside corridors of power since it involves settling the security networks, host community and deliberate connivance with shipping companies.
While the country is getting more poor people, Nigerians in positions of authority that are supposed to investigate these atrocities seem to be making a fortune out of it illegitimately.
Hundreds of George Uboh Whistleblowers Network stormed the main entrance to the National Assembly, Nigeria’s legislative branch, protesting against Hon Mark Gbillah led Ad-hoc Committee of the House of Representatives.
The committee is investigating the alleged 48 million barrels of stolen crude oil that was later sold in China.
But the protesters are against such a committee because according to them, nothing good has come out of it.
Reading a statement during the protest, Umoh said the Hon Mark Gbillah led Ad -hoc committee on illegal sale of 48 million barrels of stolen crude oil, later sold in China at $2.4 billion, was unnecessary since the matter is already in court.
The protesters led by Ambassador Joseph Peter Umoh, carried banners and placards with inscriptions denouncing the setting up of the Ad-hoc committee by the House of Representatives when the crime, according to them, is already being litigated against in the court of law.
Reading a statement during the protest, Umoh said the Hon Mark Gbillah led Ad -hoc committee on illegal sale of 48 million barrels of stolen crude oil, later sold in China at $2.4 billion, was unnecessary since the matter is already in court.
He said as Whistleblowers , they blew open the stolen crude oil and illegal sales in China to Hon Mark Gbillah and Nigerians generally .
Umoh said rather than carry them along in the planned investigation, decided to do it alone, raising suspicion on vested interests.
“The whistleblowers who furnished Hon Mark Gbillah the information germane to the 48 million barrels of crude oil stolen did not file any petition to the National Assembly for any investigation or hearing, nor were they called as witnesses to testify during the hearing.
“Because Gbillah did not follow this sacrosanct due process, the purported public hearing by the Ad – hoc committee is a sham predicated on unilateral action driven by greed.
“Therefore we, the whistleblowers at this protest, authoritatively assert that the National Assembly does not hear or deliberate on any matter in court.
“Two different competent courts of jurisdictions, are already handling the case filed against the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited ( NNPCL), Mele Kyari to account for proceeds from the stolen crude oil which are roughly estimated to be $2.4billion at $50 per barrel and $4.8 billion at $100per barrel.
“Hon Gbillah led the Ad-hoc Committee of the House of Representatives, should therefore hands off the matter by not sitting or carrying out any public hearing on it “, he said.
When told that the Ad- hoc committee was not set up by Hon Gbillah himself but leadership of the House of Representatives, Umoh said the protest was staged for the leadership to know the futility of its action on the committee.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has denied being partisan in handling the failed recall of the Senator representing Kogi Central, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of INEC, Rotimi Oyekanmi, who was on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, explained how the Commission handled the process.
“In the case of the Kogi Central District, we received a petition and a cover letter and of course what Nigerians were saying was that we were taking sides,” Oyekanmi said on the programme.
“But what happened was that in the covering letter, the representatives of the petitioners did not include their address as required in our regulations and guidelines and what we just did was to ask them to supply their address, it has nothing to do with the petition.
“And of course, there is nowhere in the law where INEC is asked to reject a petition just because the cover letter did not contain the address. So, there was no hanky-panky in what we did.”
Earlier on Thursday, INEC rejected the petition to recall Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, saying that it has not met the requirements.
The electoral commission said the petition to recall Senator Natasha did not meet constitutional requirements.
Senator Natasha was suspended for breaching Senate rules, prompting some of her constituents to initiate her recall. They claimed the move was to ensure their constituency did not lack representation following the suspension of the 45-year-old senator.
Asked whether there could be a repeat of the recall process, the INEC spokesperson said the law did not specify if the process could be repeated and how many times.
“The law just talks about the threshold, the threshold meaning that if you want to recall, you must have, in addition to your petition, 50 per cent plus one signatures. The law did not specify how many times you can undertake that,” he said.
The lawmaker has made headlines in recent months after she accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment, a claim the Akwa Ibom lawmaker has equally denied.
She was thereafter suspended by the Red Chamber for violation of its rule of conduct.
The National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has handed over 19 kidnapped victims rescued by the security agencies to the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa.
The brief ceremony took place on Thursday at the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Office of the National Security Adviser in Abuja.
The victims included Ambassador Gideon Yohanna, the former Director-General of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier-General Maharazu Tsiga (retired) who had spent 56 days in captivity and 17 others, including a child.
Both Ribadu and Musa pledged to remain relentless until the criminals are wiped out and normalcy restored in the country.
“As a result of the work of our armed forces and other security services, we are able to rescue and bring back our own people,” he said.
“This time, it involves important personalities who served this country. We thank God for their lives, we are grateful to those who made it possible.
“This is an ongoing operation and we are doing it quite silently, we will go after the bad ones.”
Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan on Thursday applauded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for rejecting a petition to recall her as the lawmaker representing Kogi Central Senatorial District.
The female lawmaker, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, said the electoral umpire should have thrown out the petition long before it did on April 3, 2025.
“I’m a lawyer. I’m a senator and I understand how Nigeria works. For me, the most important thing is this recall process has been stalled.
“I give kudos and credit to INEC even though I believe they should have thrown it away from the get-go.
“I think it was void ab initio because there is no law in the Electoral Act that says a petition should be discarded just because there is no address but again, what if the address is false?”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain argued that most of the addresses provided in the petition for her recall were false because most houses in her district weren’t labelled.
“Even though INEC did count 208,000 signatures, I bet you if they had gone into the verification stage, they would have struggled to even have 500 people come out to attest to signing that,” she added.
She accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Governor Usman Ododo and ex-governor Yahaya Bello of sponsoring her failed recall.
In a much-awaited statement on Thursday, INEC said the petition for the recall of the lawmaker did not met the requirement of Section 69(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
“Therefore, no further action shall be taken on the recall of the Senator,” INEC declared.