The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bashir Ojulari, has said that specialised international and continental gangs take advantage of security gaps to steal the crude across Africa.
Ojulari stated this at the opening of the Africa Chief of Defence Staff Conference held in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, today.
He said crude oil theft has continental and international dimensions and should be tackled holistically through collaboration and synergy among various military formations across Africa.
Speaking further in the gathering filled with defence chiefs from countries across Africa, Ojulari said crude theft and its attendant illegal activities are by no means a purely localised occurrence; rather, these operations involve specialised international syndicates that take advantage of gaps within the state, national and continental security architecture to conduct illegal activities.