National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, Speaks On Rising Crimes

<h4>National Security Adviser<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a> <&sol;strong>reports that the National Security Adviser &lpar;NSA&rpar;&comma; Malam Nuhu Ribadu&comma; has raised alarm over the unmitigated crimes in Nigeria&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission boss said the country is still losing 400&comma;000 barrels of crude oil daily to local and international thieves despite efforts to end the menace&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He lamented that the rising state of theft is worrisome despite efforts put in place by government&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ribadu confirmed this when he led a presidential delegation to inspect oil and gas facilities at Owaza in Abia and Odogwa in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers on Saturday&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He said the activities of oil thieves and pipeline vandals had impacted negatively on the nation’s economy and were partly responsible for the rising cost of living in the country&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It’s unfortunate that few individuals would steal our common resources&comma; and in the process cause unbelievable loss to both the nation&comma; communities and the people&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Nigeria has the capacity to produce 2 million barrels of crude daily&comma; but we are currently producing less than 1&period;6 million barrels due to theft and vandalism of pipelines&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;So&comma; we are talking about 400&comma;000 barrels of crude oil going to waste with few criminals and economic saboteurs not even getting much out of it&comma;” he said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Ribadu said the operators of artisanal refineries collect a small quantity of crude oil when they broke the pipelines while larger volumes of oil were spilled on the environment&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The value of 400&comma;000 barrels of oil today is about 4 million dollars&comma; and every day&comma; we lose this amount because of this irresponsible behaviour&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;If you multiply 4 million dollars by 365 days &lpar;one year&rpar;&comma; you will see that it is a lot of money running into billions of dollars&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Currently&comma; the country is in desperate need of money as the Naira is continuously losing its value because we earn less money&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;If we earn more money&comma; it will not only help strengthen our currency but reflect in everything&comma; including cost of living in the country&comma;” he added&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;vanguardngr&period;com&sol;">The NSA said that the President Bola Tinubu administration was concerned about the development and was already taking actionable steps to address the matter&period;<&sol;a><br &sol;>&NewLine;He said huge investments made by the government in building infrastructures for the common good of all were being destroyed by few individuals&comma; and in the process&comma; destroying the environment&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Ribadu called for a united front to tackle oil theft and end decades of attacks on the nation’s oil and gas infrastructures&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are working hard with the security forces and those employed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company &lpar;NNPC&rpar; Limited to secure our facilities and end this madness called oil theft&comma;” he said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;On the presidential delegation with the NSA were the Minister of Defence&comma; Baduru Abubakar&comma; and Chief of Defence Staff &lpar;CDS&rpar;&comma; Gen&period; Christopher Musa&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Others included the Chief of Air Staff &lpar;CAS&rpar;&comma; Air Marshal Hassan Abubakar&semi; Minister of State for Defence&comma; Bello Matawalle&comma; and Minister of State &lpar;Oil&rpar;&comma; Petroleum Resources&comma; Heineken Lokpobiri&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The Minister of State &lpar;Gas&rpar;&comma; Petroleum Resources&comma; Ekperipe Ekpo&comma; and senior management officials of the NNPCL as well as other top security personnel were part of the team&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;