Why Senate halted surreptitious sale of Port Harcourt Refinery to ENI by Minister
More revelations have emerged barely 24 hours after the Nigerian Senate halted unilateral moves by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to concession the Port Harcourt Refinery to AGIP and OANDO.
One of the key reasons considered by the lawmakers to raise objection include lack of due process by way of going through Bureau of Private Enterprises (BPE) which by law has the powers to conduct concession deals on behalf of the government.
Another reason was how after massive rejection of concession by Nigerians, the Ministry went through the back door to concession the refinery.
Already, Senators have set up a seven-man investigative panel led by Abubakar Kyari to unravel the allegation of breach of due process in the concession arrangement. Other members of the panel are Dino Melaye, Aliu Wammakko, Duro Faseyi, Sabo Mohammed, Benjamin Uwajumogu and Mattew Urhoghide.
In his ruling on the matter, Senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki made it clear that “While the resolve by the Federal Government to increase local refining capacity is laudable and should be applauded by all Nigerians, the observance of corporate governance principles and the country’s extant laws must be followed to the letter”.
The Upper chambers had adopted a motion sponsored by Sabo Mohammed (APC, Jigawa State) tagged “Non- Transparent Transaction relating to the planned concession of the Port Harcourt Refinery to AGIP and OANDO by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources”.
However, the Minister has reacted, saying the process of selecting AGIP and OANDO Plc as partners to operate the Port Harcourt Refinery and Petrochemical Company is yet to to reach final decision.
According to him, “We hope to award the contracts by July/August and hopefully between 12 and 18 months to be able to get the refineries fully back, and the model is to bring investors, who will repair the refineries and recoup their money from the incremental production”.
“We are ready to offer all the refineries for investors who have money to repair and manage. People keep mentioning AGIP and OANDO Plc but nobody has made the final decision on those, they are probably the front runners because they put a lot of work on that, but I am not in the technical committee.
“I am the chair of the steering committee, when the technical committee meets and finishes their work, they will refer it to the steering committee and then it goes to NNPC Board, so all the hullabaloo about transparency of the exercise will stop.
