The judge ruled that Alu Isaac was found guilty of unlawfully dealing in petroleum products without the requisite licence.

An oil thief, Alu Isaac, has been convicted and sentenced to two years in prison by a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, in Rivers State.

The judgement was delivered by Justice P. I. Ajoku on Wednesday.

The judge ruled that Alu Isaac was found guilty of unlawfully dealing in petroleum products without the requisite licence.

Alu Isaac was charged before the court by the anti-graft agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on one count bordering on conspiracy and illegal dealing in petroleum products.

Meanwhile, for a long time, crude oil theft has been a part of Nigeria’s exploration history. However, with the damage done to the national economy and its impact on Nigerian sub-nationals in recent times, this issue has taken on dangerous dimensions.

Experts say that Nigeria loses about 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day to oil thieves. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) however admits losses of 470,000 barrels per day. While this discrepancy exists, what is, however certain, is that much of our crude oil is stolen on a daily basis.

According to NNPC estimates, approximately 700 million dollars in crude oil is lost each month due to oil theft.

Between January and July 2022, Nigeria lost 10 billion dollars to this crime, which equates to 4.3 trillion Naira (at the official exchange rate of N430 to the dollar), or more than half of Nigeria’s foreign reserves.

In addition, the figure is more than double Nigeria’s total revenue between January and April 2022. During this time, Nigeria’s total revenue was insufficient to service its debt. Nigeria had to borrow for everything, including salary payments.

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