PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari is under increasing pressure to name the oil thieves whose identities were revealed to him by the US authorities when he visited Washington last week.  

Last week, when President Buhari visited the US, officials provided him with the names of former Nigerian ministers who have enriched themselves at the expense of the country by selling crude oil illegally.  Nigeria is the world's largest source of illegal crude oil which is stolen from wells in the Niger Delta in a crime known as bunkering and then transported on to the international market.  

During the trip, President Buhari was told that some members of the government of former president Dr Goodluck Jonathan stole as much as  250,000 barrels of crude daily. Following the revelations, several  Western countries including  the UK and France are said to have reached out to him to waste no further time in bringing the suspects to book. 

Nigerians are also  itching  to know the identities of the oil thieves. with a cross section of prominent Nigerians asking President Buhari to make the names public forthwith and prosecute them. Legal luminary Professor  Itse Sagay, said that he  shocked by  the magnitude of the stealing. 

Professor Sagay said: “Before this fresh revelation, one was very disturbed when Okonjo-Iweala, raised the alarm that about 400,000 barrels were being stolen every day. To hear that the quantity is as much as 1m per day is something else. 

“It shows the country went into a total rot under the last regime of President Goodluck Jonathan. and they would have looted the country to bankruptcy within a year if they were not removed from office. We should be grateful that a disciplined and upright man has taken over to clean the mess and save the country." 

Another lawyer, Chief Ladi Williams, added:  “The president should make public everything about it because the oil they stole belongs to the good people of Nigeria. The people have the right to know what is happening. 

 “Some schools of thought have suggested  that the Chinese option should be applied in dealing with the suspects. It is a common knowledge that corrupt public officers in  China always end up being executed but here in Nigeria, we have the criminal and penal code, so the suspects should be tried." 

Several other elder statesmen and former security agents have all asked that President Buhari reveal the identities of those involved in the theft. Joe Igbokwe, the publicity secretary of the Lagos State chapter of President Buhari's All Progressives Congress, said more sad revelations of the activities of government officials in the Jonathan’s administration are coming.