Nigeria: October 28, 2004

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Increased police activity in the oil rich Delta area has made public the degree of connivance by political, police and military officials with some of the oil stealing gangs. A World Bank report shows that in the last two decades, more and more of  Nigeria's oil wealth is being stolen. Currently, about one percent of Nigeria's population gets 80 percent of the oil revenue. The people at the top make payoffs as far down as neccessary to keep themselves out of prison, and their money safe in local or foreign banks. Attempts to reverse these trends have failed, including quite recent ones backed by democratically elected reformers.