NAIJAFEED

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Vessel with stolen crude intercepted in Nigeria

Nigeria's state-owned oil firm NNPC Ltd said on Monday an 800,000-litre (211,338-U.S. gallon) vessel carrying stolen crude had been intercepted offshore while heading to Cameroon and would be destroyed as a deterrent to oil theft.

Crude theft from pipelines and wells in the Niger Delta has hobbled the country's output in recent years and is one of the biggest challenges to confront new President Bola Tinubu.

NNPC said the oil was stolen from a well in south western Ondo state. The MT Tura II vessel was owned by locally registered Holab Maritime Services Limited and had no valid documentation for the oil, the company said.

Holab could not be reached for comment on numbers listed on its website.

"Destroying vessels involved in transporting stolen crude oil is of paramount importance as a strong deterrent," NNPC said.

NNPC circulated a video showing the vessel surrounded by armed Nigerian security agents.

Reporting By MacDonald Dzirutwe, Reuters

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Monday, July 10, 2023

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President Bola Tinubu elected chairman of ECOWAS

Speaking at a summit in Bissau after being named chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Tinubu said democracy was "the best form of government", despite being "very tough to manage".

"We need it, to be an example to the rest of Africa and the world," he said. "We will not allow coup after coup in West Africa."

Three ECOWAS members – Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso – have undergone five putsches since 2020.

Omar Alieu Touray, president of the ECOWAS commission, urged those countries' ruling juntas to respect agreed-upon deadlines to hand power to civilian leaders.

"In the event of a failure to meet the transition deadlines, major sanctions could be imposed," he said.

The West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) on Saturday agreed to lift a suspension of Mali imposed in January 2022 over the military's timeline for returning to civilian rule.

ECOWAS had also imposed a range of measures against the Sahel state, but lifted them in July 2022 after the junta agreed to a March 2024 transition.

On Sunday, Touray said ECOWAS had set up a commission to examine security options in Mali as the UN winds down its decade-long peacekeeping mission there.

"This commission has 90 days to reflect and make proposals," he said.

Mali has since 2012 been battling a jihadist insurgency that has since spread to Burkina Faso and Niger.

Tinubu – who was in May sworn in as president of Africa's largest economy – said ECOWAS members would pursue "inclusive" economic integration in the year ahead.

"We should serve a warning to exploiters that our people have suffered enough," he said on Sunday.

"I am with you – and Nigeria, we are back."

AFP

Court in Nigeria tells government to account for recovered Abacha loot

A Nigerian court has directed President Bola Tinubu's government to disclose how much in stolen funds it has recovered from late military ruler Sani Abacha and how the money was used, court documents showed on Sunday.

Abacha ruled Africa's most populous nation and top oil exporter from 1993 until his death in 1998, during which time Transparency International estimated that he took up to $5 billion of public money. He was never charged.

A Nigerian rights group asked the High Court in the federal capital Abuja to force the government to account for Abacha's loot since the country returned to civilian rule in 1999.

Over the years, the United States, Switzerland and British dependency of Jersey are among those who have returned hundreds of millions of dollars linked to Abacha.

The court ruled that the government should disclose the "exact amount of money stolen by General Sani Abacha from Nigeria and the total amount of Abacha loot recovered and all agreements signed on same since the return of democracy in 1999 till date."

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), which brought the challenge, said it had on Sunday written to Tinubu calling on him to obey the ruling.

Tinubu's spokesman Dele Alake did not respond to calls and messages seeking comment.

Nigeria has previously said it would use some of the Abacha funds for infrastructure projects, including roads and bridges.

By Camillus Eboh, Reuters

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