2023: We’ll reveal petroleum thieves – Falana

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*Accuses FG of complicity, says oil thieves have official backing

*As Ayuba Wabba says Labour Party will end oil subsidy in 2023

*says 2023 power lies on the street with people, not bourgeoisie

*As labour party unveils free membership cards, online portals for diaspora registration

By Lanre Oloyede

Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has vowed to revealed the real culprits behind multi-million dollars oil theft going in the Niger-Delta region of the country.

Falana, who vowed to reveal the oil thieves in concert with leadership of the organized labour, asked the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and Trade Union Congress, TUC, to set up a joint committee that will investigate the oil sleaze going on in the Niger-Delta, while promising to furnish them with every necessary information.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who disclosed this Monday in his keynote address at a two-day leadership retreat organized by the Labour Party in Abuja, accused the federal government of conspiracy and complicity in the illicit oil deals that has seen the country lost revenue to the tune of two billion dollars annually.

Falana maintained that it was impossible for tonnes of crude oil to be loaded into large ship consignments without government agencies knowing about it.

He decried a situation whereby the country loses about 38million litres of Pure Motor Spirit, PMS, on a daily basis unaccounted for.

The legal practitioner questiined the essence of acquiring a 50 billion naira worth of software by Petroleum Equalization Fund, PEF, to monitor the movement and distribution of fuel by tankers across the country and yet fuel keep being diverted.

He said Nigeria has no business with poverty except for bad leadership, adding that it was time the paradigm shifted from the bourgeoisie and pillagers of the nation’s wealth to the ordinary people as power belongs to the people on the street.

He urged the labour party and its candidates to stop hobnobbing with actors and characters who put the the country in the mess it is and rather shift the base of their campaign and lobbying to the people at the grassroots by visiting various labour union offices in the 36 states of the federation.

Speaking in his remarks, presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, reiterated that next year election will not be based on religion or ethnicity but rather on capacity, character, commitment, and competence.

Obi, who unveiled free new membership cards and registration portals for aspiring members locally and in diaspora, promised to start solving problems if elected and not to blame past administrations for the country’s woes.

He insisted that Nigeria under his watch must move from consumption to production.

Speaking earlier, NLC president, Ayuba Wabba, said the labour party will address the problem of fuel subsidy and corruption in the oil sector.

On his part, TUC president, comerade Festus Osifo, advised the electorates not to allow politicians to deceive them with ethno-religion sentiments in the 2023 elections but rather focus on competent candidate to elect as president.