PIA Enforcement Will Curb High Profiles Oil Theft – Okowa

Afimag.com –

Delta State governor and Vice-Presidential Candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sen (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa, has called on the federal government to take the petroleum industry act seriously, noting that its enforcement would check oil theft in the country.

Governor Okowa made the call on December 11, 2022, while featuring on Channels Television’s ‘People’s Townhall’ which was monitored Lagos by Africa Investigative Magazine publisher.

It was learned that ‘People Townhall’ is a Channels Television special programme dedicated to 2023 election presidential candidates to entertain respective questions from the general public.

Okowa explained that Nigeria was not deriving full advantage of its oil production because of great personalities involved in oil theft.

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Hear him: “While other countries are getting a lot more resources from oil to develop other sectors of their economy, we don’t seem to benefit from that because we are producing less than what we ought to produce.

“There is the need to ramp up production by dealing with illegal oil bunkering in the Niger Delta through strong community engagement and by ensuring implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). We can also achieve that by ensuring the communities have a buy-in and also work with security agencies to deal with oil theft.

“The gas sector is one sector that we tend to ignore. When we come in next year we will ensure continuation of the gas development plan, and that reforms are carried out critically to rake in more resources for the country,” he said.