Prominent Figures In Lagos, Abuja Behind Niger Delta Oil Theft – Ex-Bayelsa Governor Claims

The representative of  Bayelsa West in the National Assembly, Senator Seriake Dickson, has alleged that elites from Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, are behind the rampant oil theft plaguing the Niger Delta region.

Making this allegation while speaking on a Channels Television’s bulletin on Friday, the lawmaker, who is a two-term governor of Bayelsa State, shed light on the complex web of interests benefitting from oil theft.

Naija News reports that Senator Dickson criticized the systemic failure and lack of national values that allow for the exploitation of Nigeria’s oil resources for personal gain.

He questioned the absence of scientific methods for metering and monitoring oil production, suggesting a deliberate oversight by those in power to perpetuate the theft.

“Why should a country like Nigeria that has been producing oil, exporting oil for the past 70 years not have a scientific way of metering, recording what leaves, what is pumped, what is sold and what is not sold? And it’s deliberate,” Dickson said.

According to Dickson, the influx of illegal money and arms, coupled with the rampant use of illicit drugs, has fueled cultism and violence in the region.

“People from Abuja and Lagos are the masterminds and the official system is not ignorant and not innocent,” he stated, accusing the official security system, the oil industry, and federal authorities of complicity in a “criminal, powerful system” that exploits the Niger Delta.