Kyari: I have received several death threats over crackdown on oil theft

Our reporter| The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari on Wednesday said he has received several death threats from people who are benefitting from oil theft in the country.

Kyari, who stated this on Wednesday at a Legislative Transparency & Accountability Summit in Abuja organised by the House of Representatives Anti-Corruption Committee, however, said he is not bothered by their threats, noting that he won’t relent until oil theft become a thing of the past in Nigeria and the country’s resources judiciously utilised for the benefit of all.

“Lastly, without mincing words, this industry is in shortfall of a massive change, very expensive, personal cost to many people including myself. I have several death threats to myself but we are not bothered about this because we believe that no one will dies until his time, he said.

“This is the cost of change. When people walk away from things they are used to, to something that is new, something that will take away value and benefit from them, they will react and that reaction is beneficial to us.”

Kyari lamented that Nigeria daily loses about 700,000 barrels of crude to oil thieves, noting that 295 illegal connections to its pipeline were recently discovered.