The Federal Government has paid out more than $1.5 billion since 2020 to protect the nation’s oil installations and curb crude oil theft, the Secretary of the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, revealed on Thursday.

Akume, represented by Permanent Secretary Maurice Nandi, disclosed this at a public hearing of the House of Representatives on crude oil theft.

READ ALSO:INEC can conduct LG elections successfully — Yakubu

The hearing was convened to address the alarming report by the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), which estimated that over $46 billion worth of crude oil was stolen between 2009 and 2020.

READ ALSO:Ethiopia landslide death toll rises to 257

The House had set up a special committee headed by the Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Upstream, Ado Doguwa, to investigate the losses in the oil and gas sector.

Speaker of the House Tajudeen Abbas, represented by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, also stated that $10 billion has been lost in seven months due to crude oil theft and that the government can do nothing to reverse the situation.

Details later..