₦airaland Forum

A director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said that operatives of the Department of State Services have interrogated him 11 different times since May over crude oil swap deals with traders.

“The DSS has been harassing some of us,” the Group Executive Director, Refining and Petrochemicals, NNPC, Mr. Ian Udoh, was quoted as telling Reuters.

The investigation by the DSS and anti-graft agencies involves crude oil swap deals and offshore processing agreements in which the corporation gives certain volume of crude oil to traders in exchange for refined products.

Instead of ensuring that crude oil was made available to the nation’s four refineries for domestic consumption, the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, in conjunction with the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, increased the crude oil swaps and OPAs from 270,000 barrels per day to 445,000 bpd, thus starving the refineries of crude oil.

President Muhammadu Buhari has instructed the NNPC to review the crude for oil products swap contracts and offshore processing agreements with trading companies because of the belief that the deals might have cost the country millions of dollars in lost revenue and refined product supply.

“There is a siege mentality here at the moment,” Udoh, an NNPC veteran of 36 years, was quoted as saying.

He said Buhari’s initiative had given fresh legs to media coverage of the accounting holes worth over $20bn identified by two separate investigations, and that the public pressure was dominating management meetings.

The DSS operatives were said to be closely monitoring the headquarters of the corporation in Abuja, with soldiers guarding the building from raised platforms, while visitors were required to go through four separate security checks.

However, the NNPC has described the story as false.

The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, wrote in a text message to one of our correspondents, “That the report is from a foreign news agency doesn’t make it credible, please.”

Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress, had promised sweeping reforms of the oil and gas industry, with the NNPC at the core, during the campaigns leading up to the March 28 presidential election.

To kick start the overhaul of the industry, the President had on June 26 dissolved the board of the NNPC, with more sackings expected.

The President’s advisers have recommended a total overhaul of Africa’s biggest oil industry

The oil sector provides the government with roughly 70 per cent of its revenue, and the slump in crude oil prices since last year has hit the economy hard.

Under the constitution, the NNPC is supposed to hand over its oil revenue to the Federal Government, which then pays back what the firm needs based on a budget approved by the National Assembly.

But in a legal contradiction that has never been resolved, the Act establishing the state oil company allows it to cover costs before remitting funds to the government; in effect, enabling it to do what it wants with the cash.

The former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Lamido Sanusi, had in 2013 alleged that the NNPC failed to pay $20bn in revenue to government accounts between January 2012 and July 2013.

But the company argued that the money was not lost at all. A subsequent audit by the PwC found that some funds were unaccounted for, bemoaning a lack of cooperation and issued an audit with extensive caveats.

Only last month, the National Economic Council said the NNPC had earned N8.1tn between 2012 and the end of May 2015, but paid only N4.3tn to the Federal Government.

The council is chaired by the vice president and includes all state governors and the central bank governor.

At the 7th Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series held in Abuja on Monday, the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, lambasted the national oil firm for being run like a parallel government, adding that he was hopeful that the Buhari administration would “kill” the corporation.

“If you don’t kill the NNPC, you will kill Nigeria,” el-Rufai had said.

According to him, the oil firm is riddled with corruption and until it is destroyed completely and rebuilt from the scratch, there will be no headway for Nigeria.

“The fact that the NNPC has effectively become impossible to audit suits a lot of people,” said Antony Goldman of Nigeria-focused PM Consulting.

He said it was conceivable that not even insiders knew the real value of the various deals agreed on behalf of the company.

The greatest indictment of the NNPC may be that Nigeria’s four refineries have never reached full production, due to poor maintenance, leaving Africa’s biggest crude producer to rely on expensive imported fuel for 80 per cent of its energy needs.

source http://www.punchng.com/news/dss-grills-nnpc-director-11-times-over-swap-deals/

k

My President is working.

Have marcy oh lord.

Asari are getting ready to go sambisa?

Hmm

Today a friend went to police station for help they said she should bring 2k b4 movement letter thy detain her until a lawyer was involve naija I hail

I don read

k

na wa ooooo.

ye

k

I just dey open my fasting ni with kunu zaki.

na true?

source?

Freemanan:

#teamchange.God is at work my President is working.

yes. oooooo my President is working.

true talk

new Nation ni

surebet ni

back to sleep

but am yet to see one.

because

saint look.

Good morning nairaland,


If a single teacher can't teach us all the subjects then how can you expect a single studentto learn all the subjects?


I dedicate this plot of land to my wife she's from Ekiti Olori ORACLE.

I will not comment on above issue for now everyday my government bring different type mago mago so that I will not know what's going on in government well God dey oo.

to all below me have a wonderful week.

I am an unrepentant Buhari supporter but also
recognize the oversight authority of the National
Assembly over MDAs. Because Jonathan allowed that
impunity to take place under his tenure by shielding
Diezanni from NASS oversight does not mean this
administration should do the same. This administration
is meant to be different from the years of impunity
under the great babylon PDP. We must not only talk the
talk but walk the walk. Nigeria must return to the path
to greatness!!#teamchange.

The Senator representing Zamfara Central Senatorial
District, Kabir Marafa, said on Sunday that the Senate
President lacked both moral and constitutional rights to
summon the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of
Finance, for briefing on the state of the economy.
Marafa, the spokesperson for the Senate Unity Forum, who
stated this in a statement issued in Abuja, noted that since
Saraki had allegedly violated some sections of the
constitution to emerge as senate president on June 9, he
cannot accuse another person of committing the same
offence he had committed.
Our correspondent had reported that the decision of the
Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance and
other top officials to decline an invitation extended to them
by the leadership of the National Assembly for a briefing on
the state of the nation’s economy last week was currently
brewing a major face-off between the two arms of
government.
Our correspondent had also reported that the Chief of Staff
to the Senate President, Senator Issa Galaudu, and the
Clerk to the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa,
wrote separate letters to the permanent secretary but were
both allegedly ignored.
The permanent secretary, according to sources close to the
leadership of the Senate, was said to have shunned the
meeting because there was no clearance from the
Presidency to honour the briefing.
The Clerk’s letter, which was copied the Head of Service of
the Federation and obtained by our correspondent read, “I
refer to our letter Ref. No. NASS/S//SP/ COS/
CORRP/15/1/06 of June 29, 2015 on the above subject
matter and your text message of July 7, 2015, to the Chief
of Staff to the Senate President, signifying your inability to
honour the invitation.
“Your action is a deliberate violation of the provisions of
Section 67(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, 1999( as amended).
“You are, therefore, requested to appear before the Senate
Leadership as contained in your aforementioned letter
on Wednesday July 8, 2015 at 2.00pm prompt.
“The third letter to the Permanent Secretary, which also
insisted on the importance of the meeting, was written by
the Chief of Staff to the Senate President. Galaudu’s letter,
which was dated July 8, with reference number, NASS /8
th /S/SP/COS/CORRP/15/2/07, states, ‘Please note that
your text message of yesterday, Tuesday, July 7, 2015,
which I received by hours of 20:02 pm, suggesting that you
would not make today’s meeting, is unacceptable.’
“This is an affront to the President of the Senate and its
leadership. The provision of Section 67(2) of the 1999
Constitution (as amended), is very clear and unambiguous
in this regard. Hence, you do not need the permission of
any official before you attend or appear before the Senate.
“Consequently, I have the instructions of the President of
the Senate and leadership that you do spear before them on
the date and time earlier communicated to you, Wednesday,
July 8, 2015 by 11am prompt. It is my belief that you will
comply unconditionally.”
Investigations by our correspondent further revealed that
the the Permanent Secretary had yet to appear before the
senate leadership nor responded to the letters from both the
National Assembly management and the office of the
Senate President.
But Marafa, in his statement, accused Saraki of violating
the same constitution which he claimed the permanent
secretary had run foul of.
The senator said, “I read with open-mouth amazement, the
letter written by both the Chief of Staff to the Senate
President and that of the Clerk to the National Assembly on
the refusal or inability of a government functionary to
honour the invitation of the leadership of the senate.
“They were saying the refusal violates section 67(2) of the
constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Can
somebody please tell them that they are guilty of similar, if
not higher, offence?
“They, infact, not only violated the constitution to ascend to
the Senate leadership, they murdered it !”
source. WWW.punching.com/news/Senate lack constitutional right to summon P S.

I dey look comment.

congratulations sir.

bye REST IN PEACE.. TILL WE ALL COME.

no.