NNPC: Mele Kyari Indicts Churches, Mosques In Oil Theft

The Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, has said that leaders of churches and mosques are guilty of crude oil theft in the country.

Kyari while speaking during the 49th session of the weekly ministerial briefly at the State House in Abuja, said investigations made by the Company exposed individuals, religious leaders, security personnel, government officials, and others who hoard the pipelines and its products.

“When a fire outbreak happened in one of our pipelines, we discovered that some of the pipelines were actually connected to individuals’ homes. And not only that, and with all sensitivity to our religious beliefs, you know, some of the pipelines and some of the products that we found, are actually in churches and in mosques.

“That means that everybody is involved. There is no way you will take products, bring them in trucks in populated neighborhoods, load them, and leave without everybody else knowing about it. Everybody includes members of the community, members of the religious leaders and also and most likely government officials of all natures, including security agencies personnel.

“They are everywhere. And I’ve seen this even in the Niger Delta. There’s no way you would deliver a volume and lose up to 30 percent and you will continue to put those products in this line” Kyari said.

He revealed that the entire network of pipelines for petroleum products distribution in the country has been shut down, as a result of the activities of vandals.

According to Kyari, a national reserve company will be established to manage the pipelines on a commercial basis to efficiently put them to use for the distribution of products across the country.