The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project -SERAP, has announced its intention to file a lawsuit against the Federal Government over oil theft in the country.
The organization revealed this via its Twitter handle on Sunday. Oil theft has been recognized as one of the main causes of Nigeria’s economic challenges with the country regularly failing to meet OPEC’s production quota.
Melee Kyari the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Ltd, who appeared before the Senate joint committees on petroleum last week, said the company had uncovered an illegal 4-kilometer pipeline from Forcados terminal to the sea and a loading port that had been operating undetected in the last nine years.
Kyari had reported that the pipeline was found during a clampdown on oil thieves in the last six weeks.
In light of all these, SERAP has promised to file a lawsuit against the government over its refusal to deal with the crime, in an attempt to compel the government to make public, the names of those behind oil theft.