Senate wants speedy trial of cases involving crude oil theft

The Senate has appealed to the judiciary to give expeditious consideration to cases involving suspected crude oil theft in the country.

President of Senate, Ahmad Lawan made the call at a meeting in Abuja on Monday with heads of security agencies in the country.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting was a follow-up to the Aug 3 engagement on the security situation in the country.

” While fighting insecurity in the country, sometimes, the Armed Forces capture bandits alive, and those, who have made every effort to steal our oil at an industrial scale, I’m sure some of them may not be lucky to escape.

“We want to see trials of people who are caught because, when this happens, citizens will know that nobody, no matter how high that person is, can go scot-free, if he or she decides to get involved in this kind of criminal activity.

“Of course, I will appeal to our courts, the judiciary, once we have cases like this, we must give expeditious consideration.

” Because these are the issues that today, are militating against our stability and even against our democracy,” he said.

Lawan said Nigeria has lost so much of its crude oil, saying that at the last count, the report showed that the nation exported just a little above 900,000 barrels of crude oil.

“That is just about 50 per cent, It is supposed to be 1.8 million barrels per day and that is having our revenues and resources for development.

“I want to appeal to the judiciary to give special consideration, once an oil thief is taken to court, we must prosecute them.

“It is not enough to just take away whatever they have stolen and say go and sin no more,” he said.

Lawan also commended the Armed Forces and other security agencies for the current improved security situation in the country.

“We had engaged the security agencies in August. I am happy that after the meeting, today we have seen a remarkable difference in the fight against insecurity in our country by our armed forces and we are very proud of that.

“We pray that this continues because you have started the initiative and it is for you to finish the job.

“When Mr. President spoke of ensuring that we return to normalcy by December 2022 l, am sure he had in mind what the armed forces are doing recently.

“I believe the armed forces and other security agencies have everything in terms of moral and determination, but we still have to give moral support,” Lawan said.

NAN reports that the meeting, which later went into a closed-door session, had in attendance all the Service Chiefs, and the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Services among others. (NAN)