Ahead of the presidential election next year, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate, Prince Adewole Adebayo has accused the Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government of being responsible for oil theft in the country.
Prince Adebayo, who is the youngest of all the presidential candidates but most informed, stated this while addressing legal practitioners at the 62nd Conference of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) in Lagos, recently.
According to him, the government diverts over 80% of Nigeria’s crude oil and blame same on leaders and militants from the Niger Delta region for the theft.
“Five months ago, I began a solo shout that 80% of our crude oil was being stolen. I did an investigation. Nobody was listening but I kept talking about it until after four months the government said it’s only 75%,” he said.
“What they have not told you is who is stealing it, and it’s not stolen by militants or bandits. They cannot make that investment.
“It is being stolen by the government, and it’s a fact I can take anywhere. And there are two ways by which the government is stealing it.
The SDP Presidential candidate with vast knowledge of Nigeria’s economy, said: “Now, some politicians are getting the courage to repeat after me that 80 percent of our crude oil is been stolen.
“There has always been this opaque part of non-OPEC oil which people used to sell and there could be some governmental security reason for saying that.
“But there’s a second part which is that people in government have decided that they will sell the oil offshore and the money will never be for Nigeria.
“This time around, they decided that they will sell the oil offshore and the money will never get to Nigeria, that brings me to the second question, every statistics given to you be suspicious.
“Including the one given to you on this stage this afternoon because if you run a repeat after me mentality where the person who steals your money also report the stealing, you cannot get the answer.
“I don’t want to be rude and what I want to say now is not an achievement. I know more about what is going on in government than president Muhammadu Buhari who is there now.
“If president Buhari knows what I know, he will run out of the Villa and run to the police station and report himself”, Adebayo added.
