Barely 24 hours after a letter addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu was leaked, the Senate has set up a committee to conduct a comprehensive investigation on the alleged insubordination, due process abuse and maleficence leveled against the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Maikanti Baru. The committee will also investigate the alleged award of a contract worth over $25 billion without due process.
Adopting a motion jointly sponsored by Senators Samuel Anyanwu and Kabiru Marafa, the upper chamber directed that the investigation be extended to allegations of series of shady deals in another NNPC subsidiary, the NNPC Trading Company.
The Red Chamber constituted a seven-member ad hoc committee, led by a former Sokoto State governor, Aliu Wammako, to carry out the investigation. Other members of the ad hoc committee are Tayo Alasoadura, Kabir Marafa, Albert Bassey, Sam Anyanwu, Ahmed Ogembe, Chukwuka Utazi, Rose Okoh and Baba Kaka Garbai.
Marafa had, in an amendment to Anyanwu’s original motion, drawn the attention of the Senate to the weight of Kachikwu’s allegation, which was contained in an official memo to President Buhari.
He noted that the issues in the memo could not be glossed over by the Senate and maintained that they touched on the issue of corruption, which the Buhari administration was supposed to be fighting.
In the August 30, 2017, memo, Kachikwu attributed the slow growth in the oil and gas sector to illegal practices by the departments and agencies under his ministry, especially NNPC headed by Baru. He told President Buhari that the country’s petroleum industry would have recorded tremendous progress, but for Baru’s alleged inaction.
Kachikwu, who also presented five prayers to Buhari to save the oil sector from collapse, said he was always being blocked from seeing the president. He said he was disturbed that $25 billion contracts were awarded by Baru without his input and that of the board.
The memo reads in part: “The legal and procedural requirement is that all contracts above $20 million would need to be reviewed and approved by the board of the NNPC. Mr. President, in over one year of Dr. Baru’s tenure, no contract has been run through the board. This is despite my diplomatic encouragement to Dr. Baru to do so to avoid wrongfully painting you as a president who does not allow due process to thrive in the NNPC.
“Given the history of malpractices and the public perception of the NNPC as having a history of non-transparency, the NNPC Tenders Board (NTB) cannot be the final clearance authority for contracts it enters into.
“Board members had singularly and collectively raised the issues to no avail. In most of these activities, the explanation of the GMD is that you are the Minister of Petroleum, and your approvals were obtained. However, the correct governance should be that the Minister of State and the board review the transaction and give their concurrence prior to presentation to you.
“I know that this bravado management style runs contrary to the cleansing operations you engaged me to carry out at the inception of your administration. This is also not in consonance with your own renowned standards of integrity.”
Meanwhile, Baru, yesterday, was prevented from answering questions on the accusations levelled against him in Kachikwu’s letter to President Buhari.
He avoided answering the questions shortly after he paid a courtesy call on the Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, in his office at Agodi, Ibadan, ahead of the re-commissioning and flag off of loading operation in Ibadan depot of NNPC.
The reporters accosted him and asked him a few questions before they threw to him the one that bordered on the issues between him and Kachikwu. Immediately, the Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, stepped forward and prevented him from answering the question, saying: “All your questions must be restricted to why we are here.”
