The chairman of the House of Representatives AD-HOC Committee Investigating Oil Theft, Mr Mark Gbillah, says the House is investigating an allegation that some companies that were involved in crude oil export and possible theft worth billions of dollars were engaged by the Nigerian Maritime And Safety Agency, NIMASA.
He stated this at the resumed hearing of House of Representatives AD-HOC committee Investigating Oil Theft at the National Assembly, in Abuja.
Mr Gbillah ruled that the committee would summon the former attorney general of the federation, the former DG of NIMASA and the legal team of the agency to explain their involvement.
“The existence of an investigation that was carried out into crude oil export and possible crude oil theft running into allegedly million of dollars that was carried out and it was alleged that the companies that were involved were engaged by NIMASA and that the payment was made to the companies and even through the legal team by NIMASA,” he said.
Earlier, the Director General of the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA Dr Bashir Jamo, said that the mandate of the agency did not include selling or transporting crude oil.
He also said that when the revenue from crude oil continued to dwindle in 2013, the Attorney General’s office directed NIMASA to ensure that it coordinated a technical team to see how it could source data of the actual lifting of crude oil and the last destination point, to determine discrepancies.
According to him, the agency discovered many discrepancies and its legal team identified ten companies liable of under-declaration of Nigerian crude oil.
The DG explained that the agency has instituted a case in court against the companies and that most of the cases were still in court.
“The federal government has already won one of the cases, as the court had ruled that 1.7 billion dollars should be paid by an oil company Atlantic energy drilling concept to the coffers of the government. For those that are at the lower courts, we are still in court, while some of the cases instituted are not in Nigeria but but at the destination where such criminal act occured.” Dr Jamo said.
The committee also threatened to issue warrants of arrests on defaulting companies.
