THE House of Representatives,
yesterday, started an all-inclusive investigation
into alleged fraudulent activities of the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,
NNPC, with Vitol and Transfigura Commodity
Trading Firms. This was sequel to a motion entitled Urgent
Need to Investigate the Alleged Connivance of
the Nigerian National Corporation, NNPC, with
Swiss Oil Dealers to Rob Nigeria Billion of
Dollars, moved by Abiodun Balogun (APC, Ogun
State). Balogun, in his prayers, said that the long-
standing allegation of secrecy surrounding the
operations of NNPC and the oil industry was
recently blown open by a new report of The
Berne Declaration, a Swiss non-government
advocacy organisation that gave account of a series of illegal practices involving NNPC, which
also allegedly connived with major Swiss oil
trading companies to drain Nigeria of billions of
dollars through the sale of crude oil below the
market value. *House of Representatives members in
session According to him, the report, entitled Swiss
Traders Opaque Deals in Nigeria, further stated
that NNPC has so far duped the country of 6.8
billion dollars through some “Letter Box
Companies.” He noted that “exclusive and nontransparent”
partnerships of Vitol and Transfigura with
NNPC gave them over 36 percent of the
market share with NNPC selling its crude oil at
various discounts. Nigerian records The lawmaker stressed that it was worrisome
to learn that Nigeria is the only major oil
producing nation that sells 100 per cent of its
crude to private traders rather than in the open
market, which would enable it benefit from the
resulting added value with the greatest number of beneficiaries of export allocations. Also worrisome to Balogun was the fact NNPC
and its subsidiaries have not published their
financial details since 2005. In a unanimous decision thereafter, the House
sustained the motion when subjected to vote
by the Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, who
presided over the plenary. It subsequently directed its standing
committees on Petroleum Resources
(Upstream), Petroleum Resources
(Downstream) and Justice to probe all issues
raised and report back within four weeks. Meanwhile, attempts made earlier by the
Minority Leader Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos)
to include Committee on Public Accounts in the
probe and another which came in the form of
amendment motion by Abubakar Momoh (APC
Edo) to delete the inclusion of the Justice Committee and replace it with that of Finance
Committee, were killed by the lawmakers led
by Deputy House Leader, Leo Ogor (Delta PDP). Ogor said it was irrelevant to include the two
committees when the House had appropriate
committees for such investigations.
yesterday, started an all-inclusive investigation
into alleged fraudulent activities of the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,
NNPC, with Vitol and Transfigura Commodity
Trading Firms. This was sequel to a motion entitled Urgent
Need to Investigate the Alleged Connivance of
the Nigerian National Corporation, NNPC, with
Swiss Oil Dealers to Rob Nigeria Billion of
Dollars, moved by Abiodun Balogun (APC, Ogun
State). Balogun, in his prayers, said that the long-
standing allegation of secrecy surrounding the
operations of NNPC and the oil industry was
recently blown open by a new report of The
Berne Declaration, a Swiss non-government
advocacy organisation that gave account of a series of illegal practices involving NNPC, which
also allegedly connived with major Swiss oil
trading companies to drain Nigeria of billions of
dollars through the sale of crude oil below the
market value. *House of Representatives members in
session According to him, the report, entitled Swiss
Traders Opaque Deals in Nigeria, further stated
that NNPC has so far duped the country of 6.8
billion dollars through some “Letter Box
Companies.” He noted that “exclusive and nontransparent”
partnerships of Vitol and Transfigura with
NNPC gave them over 36 percent of the
market share with NNPC selling its crude oil at
various discounts. Nigerian records The lawmaker stressed that it was worrisome
to learn that Nigeria is the only major oil
producing nation that sells 100 per cent of its
crude to private traders rather than in the open
market, which would enable it benefit from the
resulting added value with the greatest number of beneficiaries of export allocations. Also worrisome to Balogun was the fact NNPC
and its subsidiaries have not published their
financial details since 2005. In a unanimous decision thereafter, the House
sustained the motion when subjected to vote
by the Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, who
presided over the plenary. It subsequently directed its standing
committees on Petroleum Resources
(Upstream), Petroleum Resources
(Downstream) and Justice to probe all issues
raised and report back within four weeks. Meanwhile, attempts made earlier by the
Minority Leader Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos)
to include Committee on Public Accounts in the
probe and another which came in the form of
amendment motion by Abubakar Momoh (APC
Edo) to delete the inclusion of the Justice Committee and replace it with that of Finance
Committee, were killed by the lawmakers led
by Deputy House Leader, Leo Ogor (Delta PDP). Ogor said it was irrelevant to include the two
committees when the House had appropriate
committees for such investigations.
No comments:
Post a Comment