Civic Group, SERAP Drags Nigerian Government To Court Over Failure To Disclose Those Behind Illegal Four-Kilometre Oil Pipelines

^{The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has threatened to sue President Muhammadu Buhari-led Nigerian government over the 58 illegal oil points discovered in Delta and Bayelsa states.}

^{SERAP while making its plan known on its Twitter account on Sunday said the legal action is to compel the government to disclose the full identities of those behind the discovered illegal oil pipelines, bring them to justice and recover all the proceeds of their crime.}

^{“We're suing the Buhari administration over the discovery of illegal oil pipelines, to compel it to name those responsible for the plundering of the country’s oil wealth, bring them to justice, and recover the proceeds of crime,” SERAP wrote.}

^{https://twitter.com/SERAPNigeria/status/1579202381497380864?t=bdKA67kmzgz0TZyXjQtGGA&s=19}

^{Recall that last Tuesday, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Mele Kyari, disclosed that the company uncovered an illegal 4 kilometre (km) pipeline from Forcados terminal to the sea, and a loading port that had operated for the past nine years.}

^{Also, the ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo popularly known as Tompolo, on Sunday in a press briefing at Oporoza while giving an update on the discovered 4km illegal crude oil pipeline said, “I think we have found over 58 points that have been tapped in both Delta and Bayelsa states.”}

^{Kyari, who made this known when he appeared before the Senate Joint Committees on Petroleum (upstream and downstream), and gas, said the pipeline was found during a clampdown on oil theft in the past six weeks.}

^{Kyari had said, “Oil theft in the country has been going on for over 22 years but the dimension and rate it assumed in recent times is unprecedented.}

^{“The Brass, Forcados, and the Bonny terminals are all practically doing zero production today; the combined effect is that you have lost 600,000 barrels per day when you do a reality test.}

^{“As a result of oil theft, Nigeria loses about 600,000 barrels per day, which is not healthy for the nation’s economy, and in particular, the legal operators in the field, which had led to a close down of some of their operational facilities.}

^{“But in rising to the highly disturbing challenge, NNPCL has in recent times in collaboration with relevant security agencies, clamped down on the economic saboteurs.}

^{“In the course of the clamp down within the last six weeks, 395 illegal refineries have been deactivated, 274 reservoirs destroyed, 1, 561 metal tanks destroyed, 49 trucks seized and the most striking of all is the four kilometre illegal oil connection line from Forcados Terminal into the sea which had been in operation undetected for nine solid years.”}