More revelations have come from President Muhammadu Buhari as regards the extent of corruption which pervaded the nation’s oil sector under the immediate past administration of former President, Goodluck Jonathan.
Speaking on Tuesday while fielding questions from a group which identified itself as Nigerians In Diaspora Organisation, NIDO, at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC, Buhari said, “250,000 barrels per day of Nigerian crude were being stolen and people sell and put the money into individual accounts”.
He however expressed optimism that the United States and other developed countries “are helping us to trace such accounts now.”
According to him, “We will ask that such accounts be frozen and prosecute the persons. The amount involved is mind-boggling. Some former ministers were selling about one million barrels per day.
“I assure you that we will trace and repatriate such money and use the documents to prosecute them. A lot of damage has been done to the integrity of Nigeria with individuals and institutions already compromised”.
Buhari further told his guests that unlike what obtained during his tenure as Federal Commissioner for Petroleum under a military regime when the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, had only two traceable accounts before paying oil proceeds into the Central Bank of Nigeria, “now everybody is doing anyhow.”
He was skeptical about what would eventually become of oil subsidy, regretting that if subsidy is removed, transport, housing and food prices would go out of control and the average worker would suffer untold hardship.
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