Take Oil Theft Cases To The US – Former Lawmaker Tells FG

The Federal Government has been urged to take litigations concerning oil theft in the country to the United States for trial.

Naija News reports that a former lawmaker, Johnson Agbonayinma said if the government wants headway concerning cases of crude oil theft, then it would be better to head to the United States.

Agbonayinma, who was giving an account of the efforts made by the federal government to litigate cases of crude theft said all the efforts were being frustrated by forces from within.

The former lawmaker was reacting against the backdrop of the House of Representatives which is set to investigate allegations of stolen crude oil worth about $2.4 billion.

Agbonayinma, who is the former Chairman, of the House of Representatives Committee on Nigeria/US Parliamentary Relations, alleged on Channels Television’s Politics Today that some of the companies involved in the criminal act were indigenous and others International Oil Companies (IOCs) working in connivance with “some of our people.”

He claimed that most of the lawyers engaged by the federal government, including Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), “connived” with the IOCs and some local counterparts to “derail the wheel of progress.”

He queried that “Up till now, have you heard any judgement on all these cases?”
Agbonayinma revealed that the federal government’s lead counsel, who is a “well-known lawyer in the United States of America” identified as Anthony Jerome, was at his wit’s end handling the issue.

Citing his previous interview with Channels Television six years ago, the former House of Representatives member alluded to the lawyer doing as much as he could under the circumstances.

“That was the person who led the council to convene and unearth this rubbish.

‘I gave you everything in the interview you granted. You showed it all on Channels.’ He said, ‘Honourable E.J., I’m not coming back to Nigeria again.

“I asked why. He said, ‘Your people are your own problem. The only way we can have headway is we have to take this litigation to the United States. Once this is in the United States, we will have a headway,” the former lawmaker submitted.