By Demilade Aderibigbe
From human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, came assurances, Friday, that the identities of Nigeria’s oil thieves may soon be known.
Falana, said the Tinubu Presidency must save Nigerians the embarrassment and name those stealing the nation’s oil.
Falana who was a guest on Politics Today, on Channels Television, said his conviction arose from the fact that Mallam Nuhu Ribadu who was appointed in 2012 by the former President Goodluck Jonathan to investigate the activities of criminals behind the oil crisis, is now the National Security Adviser.
“It is time that Ribadu must walk his talk and disclose those who have been behind the disappearance of our oil. I am aware that only 24 of our oil wells are metered and about 16 are not and it is from these 16 that staling of our oil wealth takes place. Nuhu Ribadu must tell Nigerians who were the people behind this economic sabotage,” Falana said.
He said Nigeria is the only oil producing country bedeviled with illegal bunkering, and the only one that has no oil refinery, and is bedeviled with all manners of evil.
On the removal of fuel subsidy, Falana said Nigerians are looking forward to what President Bola Tinubu would do and the palliatives he would release to cushion the effect of the removal of the subsidy.
He said the government told us they would be saving $10 million. We look forward to the palliatives the Federal Government would release to cushion the effect of the removal of subsidy on oil especially on the poorest of the poor in the country.
Also speaking on the expose on the floor of the National Assembly, which sought to drag the judiciary in the mud, Falana described the disclosures which took place during the valedictory session of the ninth assembly as “embarrassing” and warned of severe consequences if attempts are made to sweep it under the carpet.
“I have made my position very clear on that issue, and that is that that development must be investigated,” Falana concluded.