New United States Government cables published by whistleblower, WikiLeaks, have identified a former first lady (names withheld), unnamed highly placed Nigerians, senior military officers, Lebanese, Iranian, British and American businessmen as oil thieves. The cables claim that they all played active roles in the illegal bunkering business in the Niger Delta.
The cables also put the huge loss that the country sustained from illegal bunkering at about 91million barrels of oil per annum.
The three cables containing the revelations were written by US diplomats in Abuja and Lagos and sent to their home governments between November 2004 and November 2009.
The first cable is titled, “Niger Delta: Guns and thugs rule the land”, the second, “Captain Crusader versus bunkering bandits”; and the third, “The fundamentals of illegal oil bunkering in Nigeria.”
The cables detail the security, political, and humanitarian situation in the Niger Delta based on field visits by US political and economic officers and the interviews they conducted with military officers and key players in the illegal business. Continue reading.......
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