EFCC recovers N13 billion from unauthorized fuel subsidy payments.

The PUNCH has learned that between 2017 and 2021, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission recovered roughly N13 billion as the profits of illegitimate payments made under the subsidy regime. This was based on a document that our correspondent downloaded from the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit's website entitled "National Inherent Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in the Nigerian Extractive Sector." The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which is in charge of looking into and prosecuting cases involving fraudulent oil and gas subsidies in Nigeria, said in the report that it had "recovered N12, 998,963,178.29 as proceeds of illegal payment made under the subsidy regime between 2017 and 2021." According to a tabular breakdown, almost N4.67 billion was recovered in 2017, N4.29 billion in 2018, N2.41 billion in 2019, and N416.51 million in 2020 and N1.22bn in 2021.The report also mentioned that there were several potential for illegal activity in the oil and gas industry. "Opportunities for fraudulent actions exist in the oil and gas sector, from extraction to sales of refined goods to consumers," the report's conclusion read. It is impossible to quantify the amount of crude oil extracted or even stolen through oil theft and vandalism because there is no dependable equipment to measure the volume of crude oil being removed. Oil theft also happens in the downstream industry because gas pumps at gas stations are manipulated or faked.