PRNigeria Fact‑Check Contradicts Tony Elumelu’s 97% Oil Theft Assertion on Pre‑Tinubu Era

PRNigeria Fact‑Check Contradicts Tony Elumelu’s 97% Oil Theft Assertion on Pre‑Tinubu Era

A viral social media graphic attributing a statement to billionaire businessman and Heirs Holdings Chairman, Tony Elumelu, claiming that Nigeria lost 97 per cent of its crude oil production to theft before President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office has been found to be misleading.

The graphic, widely circulated on WhatsApp and other social media platforms, quotes Elumelu as saying: “We were losing 97% of our oil production to theft before Tinubu reforms; now we retain 98% and have unlimited access to dollars. I’m not a politician; I can tell the truth.”

The post has generated widespread reactions, with many users interpreting the figures as official national statistics on Nigeria’s oil production.

However, a PRNigeria fact-check has established that while Elumelu made a similar statement, it has been taken out of context and inaccurately presented.

PRNigeria’s verification confirmed that Elumelu made the remarks on July 25, 2025, during President Tinubu’s meeting with members of the Association of Power Generation Companies (GENCOs) at the Presidential Villa.

At the meeting, Elumelu stated: “Before you took office in 2023, we lost 97% of our daily oil production. Today, we are retaining 98%. That’s transformation.” The remarks were widely reported by mainstream media and supported by video recordings of the event.

However, further examination of the speech showed that Elumelu was referring specifically to the operational experience of Heirs Energies’ OML 17 oil asset, not Nigeria’s overall crude oil production.

PRNigeria also reviewed official figures released by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), which paint a markedly different…