Nigeria’s refined petroleum products, especially the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise called petrol, is the ‘smuggle gold’ feeding Cameroon, Benin, Togo, Chad and Niger Republic, which all share border with Nigeria. According to reports and investigations by our reporters, the porous Nigerian borders, spanning over 17,000 kilometres, make it possible for this illicit petrol trade to flourish for so long despite deliberate actions by security operatives. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) reports that Nigeria has 50 to 55 million litres of petrol as daily consumption. However, findings indicate that Nigerians do not exclusively consume this amount of the product as a huge chunk is being smuggled to these neighbouring countries. A counter statistics proving this came in September 2019 when Nigeria closed its borders and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), along with other security operatives, launched the Exercise Swift Operations (EXSWIFT), partially closing the borders until December 2020. […]