Officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and other government officials have been accused by an oil and gas trading company identified as Samano SA DE CV of stealing 48 million barrels of Bonny light crude oil.
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A letter from Lords and Temple, signed by Gboyega Oyewole, SAN,In July 23, 2020 and addressed to the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mele Kyari, said its client was approached in 2015 by a group in China with the intent to sell the stolen crude stating that the crude was believed to have been confiscated from Nigeria and stored in various ports and terminals in China.
The legal firms said in it’s letter entitled “Formal request for the payment of five per cent whistleblower compensation for information furnished in respect of crude oil stolen from the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, that NNPC gave consent to certain companies to sell the crude oil in China.
Not withstanding the assurances to it’s client that investigations into the matter would be made, as well as the award of due compensation to its client, the legal firm said no payment had been made since then.
The NNPC’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Kennie Obateru, said the oil firm was cognizant of the accusation but would not respond now.
He said, “we won’t respond to it now, but at the appropriate time we will make our position known to the public.”
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