The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has sought the establishment of a Special Court to prosecute suspected crude oil thieves and other crimes in the oil and gas industry.
Officials of the Commission made the call, yesterday, during their appearance at the investigative hearing of the House of Representatives Special Committee investigating ‘Crude Oil Theft and other Losses’.
Speaking separately, the Chief of Staff to the EFCC Chairman, Michael Uzokwe, said the Commission was facing challenges of delayed prosecution of suspects in courts, hence the need for a special court for speedy prosecution.
According to him, they have filed hundreds of cases in various courts, but only a negligible number were adequately prosecuted and the suspects convicted while a larger number were still ongoing and fresh ones being filed.
He added that the bottlenecks hindering the speedy prosecution of cases led to pending cases in courts, especially across the Niger Delta region where the crimes were being perpetrated and arrests were being made on a daily basis. Corroborating the claims, the EFCC Director of Investigation, Abdulkareem Chukkol, said the EFCC commands in the Niger Delta have a section that deals with hundreds of complaints that have to do with oil related crimes daily.
According to him, over 400 cases were taken to courts by the EFCC in 2019 alone and over 200 cases in 2022.
Chukkol, however, noted that some of the cases being brought to the EFCC were also referred to sister agencies.
Responding to a question by a member of the Committee, Rep. Gambo Leko, the EFCC official informed that, the EFCC hardly withdrew cases but quickly appealed when there was a judgement against it or a ‘Stay of Execution’ on the case.
While answering questions about the utilisation of funds recovered, he said he did not have the information at the time, but promised that the agency would provide all the details to the committee.
He, however, noted that the President had in his address to Nigerians during the recent protest gave a hint that about N100 billion had been released from the recoveries made by the EFCC. However, Rep. Sada Soli Jibiya who sit-in briefly for the Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Alhassan Ado Doguwa, said that recoveries must be made public for Nigerians to know because they had been captured in the budget. Earlier, Chairman of the Committee, Doguwa, reminded the agencies that the main aim of the investigation was to find a way for all stakeholders to forge a common front to fight the menace of oil theft in the country.
He said the country could not continue with the serious challenges in the oil sector, adding that stakeholders and the government had to come to the table to address the problems. According to him, if the leakages are tackled it will help increase production and revenue to run the affairs of the government.
Doguwa emphasised that, the government had the political will to address the problems but it was being handicapped by the years of the rot in the oil and gas sector.
He said the investigation was to find ways to mitigate the effects of the oil theft and other criminalities in the sector by getting the best information from stakeholders.
