The founder of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), Fisayo Soyombo, has made some revelations in his first interview since being released by the Nigerian Army.
Speaking on Arise TV on Saturday morning, Soyombo claimed he was conducting an undercover investigation when he was arrested.
He revealed there was high security cover provided for oil bunkerers in the country.
“It would shock you the kind of people who escort illegal oil bunkerers out of Port-Harcourt.
“The Army spokesman already compromised my security by going online to say that they found illegal bunkerers.
“There are clean men in the military but we need to clean up the saboteurs who enable oil bunkerers to thrive.
“This is a new level for me that I need to do it. Rather than change my approach, I will rather stop. Maybe I have one, two, three undercover investigations and I will stop.
“It is not the fun of it but the situations we found ourselves in. Imagine the story I did on smugglers. People have to know that in their country they can be safe, and we need to expose these wrongdoings.
“The figure being put out in terms of crude oil theft are an underestimation of what’s happening. The crude we were to move was for 50,000 barrels. If the man who got annoyed that he wasn’t bribed didn’t talk, we would have had two trucks moved out.
“There is no institution that can say for a fact the barrels being lifted daily.
“It is not only oil bunkerers that are thieves but those who are also meant to supervise the sector. What we would need is an overhaul of the system,” Soyombo said.
