APC Vice President Absent at debate as Sambo says 100,000 barrels, not 400,000 crude lost per day

The Vice President, Namadi Sambo, has said Nigeria loses 100,000 bar­rels of crude oil per day to pipeline vandalism and not 400,000 as has wrong­ly touted.

He said each pipeline at­tacked by vandals carried crude from various companies and each of the affected com­panies usually shut down their wells to prevent loss and other damages to the environment.

Sambo, who was one of the three vice presidential candidates that participated in the Nigerian Election Debate Group (NEDG) Vice Presi­dential Debate 2015, yesterday said the present administration, led by President Goodluck Jonathan had been fighting the menace through a special task force that had been working jointly to end pipeline vandal­ism in the country.

He said the present adminis­tration was working with other countries to stop them from patronising the crooks. “We are trying to stop this criminal activities and we are succeed­ing,” he said.

On insurgency, Sambo said it was not peculiar to Nigeria, describing it as unfortunate.

However, he said govern­ment was strengthening the security agencies, making sure they were properly kitted and retrain the personnel so that they could address the menace.

He said the Joint Task Force had recovered many of the ar­eas earlier taken over by Boko Haram.

Sambo said the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were properly catered for while there were plans to rebuild the destroyed villages, revealing that more than $100 billion had been raised to that effect through the Victims Support Fund.

On how the administration intends to tackle corruption if elected, Sambo said corruption  was a cancer that must be cut off or treated.

He spoke on the success re­corded in agriculture through e-wallet system, which he said enable the government to save billions of naira annually. The vice president said about N200 billion had been saved from ghost workers through the central payment system, while N300 billion had been recov­ered from corrupt officials.

Other participants were the vice presidential candidate of KOWA Party, Seidu Bobboi and his United Progressive Party (UPP) counterpart, Barr Bello.

The vice presidential can­didate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, was absent.