Top officials in my government still stealing crude oil – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari Monday lamented that crude oil theft that characterized the immediate past Goodluck Jonathan administration has not abated.

According to him, “the theft continues. Up to the 10th of this month, our crude is still being illegally lifted by people who are in government”.

The President who featured on a live programme, ‘Good Morning Nigeria’ on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), however assured that facts and figures that could lead to prosecution of those involved were being gathered.

“We are trying to get these documents; we are getting cooperation from the international community. We are going very soon to make sure that those who perpetrated this crime against Nigeria will be faced with facts and be taken to our courts.

“We have got the cooperation of some of the countries that are the destinations of our crude and we are discussing with them. We have to maintain high confidentiality so that we don’t risk some of the people in Nigeria that are helping us to trace the destinations of this stolen crude and then the accounts where the proceeds are being paid instead of the Federal Government account.

“I don’t think the NNPC knows how many accounts are there in which payments are made on Nigerian crude. The monumental fraud has been going on for a number of years; a lot of Nigerians cannot comprehend it.

“The multiparty democracy system for developing countries has its advantages and relative disadvantages in the sense that for us to get the help of the developed countries, we have to get our facts: documents, complete and reliable investigation, take them to court and get these people prosecuted.

On efforts to get looted funds repatriated, President Buhari admitted it is a difficult one.

“The countries are willing, but I also said it has to comply with their own system, that we have to get the documents, especially the shipping documents: how they load here in our terminals, the destinations.

“Some of them even change the crude or the destinations on the high sea and then change the account, instead of the Federal Government account, they pay into individual accounts,” he said.