Nigeria on Wednesday warned potential investors about fake documents offering crude oil for sale on behalf of the state-run oil group Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Nigeria, the fifth largest oil producer in the Opec [Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries] cartel, accounts for 2,018-million barrels per day, but it has a capacity to produce three million.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said fraudulent persons and groups are offering non-existent crude oil for sale, using forged documents.
”The contract documents contained forged signatures of the president, the group managing director of NNPC and that of the general manager crude oil marketing,” it said.
The corporation said it receives an average of 10 such documents daily.
It advised investors to ignore such offers, saying it is only NNPC that can sell crude oil on behalf of the country.
Hundreds of Nigerians and foreigners are duped every year by fraudsters offering spurious and fake business proposals.
The activities of the fraudsters have given Nigeria a negative image in the world, especially through an international advance fee fraud known here as ”419”.
Two weeks ago, the country’s anti-fraud commission arraigned nine suspects, including senior lawmaker Morris Mbekwe, in court over various international scams running into millions of dollars. – Sapa-AFP