Seriake Dickson, a former governor of Bayelsa State and current serving Senator, has accused influential individuals living in Lagos and Abuja as the masterminds behind the oil theft in the Niger Delta region.

Dickson, who is a Senator representing Bayelsa West in the National Assembly made this revelation when he appeared on “Inside Sources” with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme which was aired on Channels Television on Friday.

He went on to say that the official system and oil firms profit from oil theft in the Niger Delta, and he lamented the lack of national values that leads people to exploit the country’s resources for personal gain.

Dickson said, “Why should a country like Nigeria that has been producing oil, exporting oil for the past 70 years not have a scientific way of metering, recording what leaves, what is pumped, what is sold and what is not sold? And it’s deliberate.

“People from Abuja and Lagos are the masterminds and the official system is not ignorant and not innocent. The official security system, the official oil system, the official federal system, all of it in its entirety. It’s a criminal, powerful system.”

He stated that, just as the world came together to condemn stolen blood diamonds, a worldwide consensus should emerge to force the international community to reject stolen crude oil from Nigeria.

Dickson, therefore, urged authorities at all levels to have great political resolve in order to put an end to the dangerous trend of oil theft.