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Tag: NNPC

  • Chartered Jets: Alison- Madueke, NNPC, FAAN others get Reps’ letter

    Chartered Jets: Alison- Madueke, NNPC, FAAN others get Reps’ letter

    The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison Madueke, Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, VistaJet International, Evergreen Aviation Terminal, operators of private Jets and the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria, FAAN have been written by the House of Representatives Committee in Public Accounts.

    The letters dated March 26th and signed by Hon. Samuel Olamilekan Adeola, Chairman of the committee signifies the heightened preparations for the probe of the chartered private Jets which is said to be costing the country billions of Naira.

    The Minister is expected to tender a written submission within one week of “all she knows about the transactions, and if as a Minister she is entitled to such chartered private jets for private use, and whether or not she has not breach public service rules, as well as who is responsible for the bills”

    Other necessary information that would aid the Committee in the investigation is also to be forwarded by the Minister.

    On its part, the GMD NNPC is to forward in written form to the lawmakers “all information relating to the deal from 2011 till date, the level of involvement of the Corporation, the contractual agreement between the Corporation and the operators of the private jets and its  financial commitment to it since 2011 till date among others,” a source close to the committee said.

    The Committee is requesting from the private jets operators “the contracts agreements between them and the NNPC  from 2011 till date, all the flight schedules, the passengers’ manifests from the 2011 till date and the amount of money paid to them during the period under review,” the source added.

    The probe into the controversial operation of chartered private jets for private use for local and foreign trips by Mrs Diezeani Alison-Madueke was sequel to a motion brought before the House on the matter by a member, Hon. Samuel Adejare ( APC, Lagos).

    One of the aspects that the Reps Committee is interested in getting answers to is why there was no valid contract agreement between the NNPC/Petroluem Resources Ministry and the Private Jets operators for the lease of the 850 challenger Aircraft which was extensively used by the Minister.

    The tendering of memoranda by stakeholders would be followed by the adoption of a date for the public hearing on the matter, in line with the resolution of the House,  it was learnt Wednesday.

    Several new flight schedules operated on foreign trips by the Minister between 2012 and 2013 has also been uncovered by the Public Accounts committee.

    The new discovery, involving Global Express XRS with tail number S5-GMG and tail number OE-LGX,OE-LSS and OE-INA allegedly cost $300,000 (about N50m) per trip, way above an estimated cost of N7.5million for the same trip.

    A December 21st, 2012 trip from the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja to the United Kingdom with the Global Express XRS with the tail number: OE-LGX gulped N57.5million as against an estimated N6million it was also alleged.

  • Charity begins abroad

    Charity begins abroad

    •We support Nigerians in Diaspora’s plan to stage protests abroad over the country’s ills 

    Nigerians in the Diaspora appear set to lead the way in staging protests over the unpleasant developments back home. In a full page advertorial signed by one Ms Onyenye-Chukwu Okereke for Nigerians in Diaspora for Accountability, based in the United Kingdom, the group made reference to the recent revelations of an unremitted $20billion to the Federation Account by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which led to the purported suspension of Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    It also referred to the allegation that the petroleum minister, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, spent N10billion to hire and maintain private jets for her personal use.

    The group, which is apparently piqued by the Federal Government’s complacency in fighting corruption, made a clarion call on “… all Nigerians in Diaspora to prepare for a public protest in London and Washington DC, if the minister is not immediately sacked by the President”. The protests would take place at the Nigeria High Commission, Nigeria House, 9, Northumberland Avenue, London and the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC at dates to be communicated soon by the group’s coordinators in both countries. Although the group noted that the group executive directors of the NNPC had been sacked, it believed, and rightly so, that they were not the issue. “If Diezani is not sacked to redeem the nation’s image and reverse the rot in the NNPC …” Nigerians in Diaspora have been fully mobilised to embarrass the minister whenever she is on any international assignment abroad.

    We fully back this initiative if only for the simple fact that Nigerians at home are becoming increasingly docile for comfort. Indeed, it is amazing the way they have become so passive about the developments in the country. Corruption has continued to worsen, leading inexorably to chronic underdevelopment, power supply remains epileptic as ever, the number of idle youths keeps increasing and there is general insecurity in the country.

    There are several other issues that ought to have brought Nigerians out of their shell, perhaps to the streets, to tell the government ‘no more’. One of these is the recent death of 19 applicants seeking employment into the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS). Nigeria is one of the few places where most of these strange things could be happening with the government going on with business as usual, and without anyone lifting a finger. It would appear that they have seen the worst of it all such that nothing shocks them again. This is bad for the country. So, if it takes this type of elixir by Nigerians in Diaspora for Accountability to make them alive to their responsibilities, so be it.

    Of course this would not be the first time that Nigerians outside of the country would be protesting against government’s policies and programmes at home. The 2012 fuel subsidy protests in the country were followed by such protests, first in London, from where it spread to parts of the United States and other countries, including South Africa, Ghana, Canada, Australia and Finland. Like the protests in the country, the protesters abroad also carried placards and sang, even as they spiced the protests with intermittent speeches in front of the Nigerian embassies in these countries and the International Monetary Fund office in Washington, as well as the UN headquarters in New York. The same thing happened during the efforts to revalidate the June 12, 1993 election result.

    Although with the advancement in IT, the world has become more or less a global village, such protests are not only symbolic, they also draw the unsavoury developments vividly home to the international community, in the hope that such externalisation of the issues could force the hands of government back home to do something about them.

  • Oil spill in Edo community

    Oil spill in Edo community

    Farmlands in Ogugu community, near Okpella in Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo State have been destroyed by an oil spill.

    The spill has polluted the only river in the area, which is the source of water for the residents.

    The spill, which was discovered by the residents, was caused by a ruptured pipeline from Warri which passes through Ogugu community.

    Some of the residents, who spoke to The Nation, said the spill had destroyed crops.

    A palace chief in Ogugu, Alaye Yusuf, said the community had lost millions of naira to the oil spill.

    “We discovered the oil spill when our farmers went to the farm and suddenly the whole area was filled with crude oil,’’ he said.

    Yusuf said if the ruptured pipeline was not repaired, it could cause more damage to the farmers and the community.

    “We are calling on NNPC to immediately repair the ruptured pipeline.

     

  • Missing N59.6 billion: Reps issue 24-hour ultimatum to CBN, NNPC, AGF

    Missing N59.6 billion: Reps issue 24-hour ultimatum to CBN, NNPC, AGF

    The House of Representatives Committee on Public accounts Tuesday issued a 24 hour ultimatum to the acting governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sarah Alade and the Executive Director of Finance, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Accountant General to the Federation (AGF), Mr Jonah Otunla to explain their various roles in the alleged missing  N59.6 billion Service Wide Vote in 2006.

    Representatives of NNPC, CBN and AGF has during the investigative hearing held Tuesday denied knowledge about the disbursement of the fund.

    In his submission, the NNPC GM Accounts, Mr Sambo Aliyu presented a letter written by the Budget Office in response to NNPC’s enquiry on the whereabouts of the missing fund.

    He however noted that the budget office responded that the money was released to NNPC.

    But when asked whether the money was released to NNPC, Aliyu responded that “the cash was not released, we did not see any money.”

    While reacting to his submission, members of the Committee insisted that all the relevant agencies should be summoned once again.

    Also when the representative of CBN, Mr Dipo Fatokun was asked to explain what he knows about the missing fund, he simply replied saying “we will need to get the mandates from the AGF.”

    Unhappy with his response, some of the lawmakers declared that Fatokun should come along with his superiors Wednesday as his response so far has not been encouraging.

    Also when queried on the missing fund, Mrs. Tayo Toluwase a director, in the budget office simply said she does not have all the relevant details on the issue.

    While ruling, Chairman of PAC, Rep Olamilekan Adeola, ordered that the AGF should bring all the documents that involved the disbursement of the fund.

    According to him, such documents include all bank transactions between July and December 2006, a copy of the federation account, copies of statements of accounts through CBN for the period under review.

    He explained that “if there was any mandate on the said missing N59.6bn it will show at a glance.

    “We are tired of all the excuses of all the agencies involved claiming ignorant at one stage or the other.”

  • ‘Help, NNPC is sinking’

    Not surprisingly, Andrew Yakubu, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), is not finding it funny at all that the organisation has come to represent bad news in the eyes of quite a few Nigerians. An upset Yakubu reportedly made his feelings known to journalists during dinner in Abuja and his moans were multidimensional.

    To start with, he complained with a sense of alarm, “We cannot do this business without Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), without foreign participation. Our credibility level is going down very fast. And unfortunately, it is based on perception.” He went on, “If we continue at this rate, I am going to tell you something that is very bad. I will ask all of you that if you continue to destroy our economy this way, then pray never to give birth to children because those children are coming to suffer the outcome of our terrible destructive attitudes. Because it will be difficult for anybody to invest in this country if we continue to destroy our country’s perception.”

    Biting words, but who really is messing up the country’s image? Is it those who irresponsibly make negative news, or those who faithfully report it? From the look of things, Yakubu was suggesting unprofessional self-censorship by implying that reporters should look away and keep mum when NNPC is in an alleged mess. To be specific, it is easy to link this veiled recommendation with the highly controversial allegation of missing $20 billion oil revenue by suspended Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido, the latest in a long history of corruption-related accusations against the corporation.

    No doubt, it is convenient for Yakubu to blame the organisation’s woes on “perception”, and to sell the wrong impression that so-called perception cannot be objective. Indeed, the question is whether the claimed damage to NNPC’s credibility is based on correct perception.

    Perhaps unable to reasonably disregard the possibility that public estimation of the corporation’s performance might actually be based on reality, Yakubu told the audience,” If you are talking of corruption, mention anywhere you don’t have any iota of corruption. But what they do is that, you do it, but the law will catch up with you.”

    Obviously, it is a lame argument to suggest that corruption is everywhere and, therefore, no big deal. Or isn’t that what Yakubu meant? Thank God, he was at least honest enough to acknowledge the fact that the justice system can be relied upon to deal with corruption issues in those places he referred to, where the law is usually applied with all sense of responsibility. By extension, he should also be truthful enough to accept that his country is not yet in that category.

    He was clearly speaking in a strange tongue, or being unserious, when he said, “So I would appeal that if you have any specific case, bring it out, then we will be able to correct it.” If anything had been corrected in all the years of alleged sleaze at the corporation, it is likely that Yakubu would not have had to do his latest dinner talk with journalists, or if he did, it would not have been about loss of credibility, which is not surprising in NNPC’s unflattering circumstances.

  • ‘NNPC to fix vandalised pipelines soon’

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is making efforts to fix vandalised pipelines, including the Forcados supply lines in the next few months to boost gas supply for improved electricity supply, the Group Executive Director, Gas and Power, Dr. David Ige, has said.

    He told The Nation that the corporation is struggling with gas supply outages caused by vandals, but assured that NNPC is making efforts to fix the pipelines in the next couple of months.

    Asked on the continued complaints about gas supply shortages and what the Corporation is doing to find lasting solution to the situation, he said NNPC is building more gas pipelines, but unfortunately these efforts are not seen by Nigerians because no sooner than NNPC completes repairs of one pipeline than the vandals destroy another. This makes NNPC to be repairing one vandalised pipe or the other at any point in time, Ige explained.

    He said: “But we are having serious short-time challenge and there are two things responsible for that. One, mostly arises from acts of vandalism, so at any point in time, we are repairing one pipeline or the other. Last year, Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) was down for seven months. Now ELPS is back, Trans Forcados is down. At every point in time, we have been experiencing one major outage or the other.

    “Really the problem now is a short-term stabilisation problem. We haven’t built supply to the full capacity of demand for the gas, but we have always known that gap would be there until the next couple of months, we are going up in supply and consumption is also going up. There is a gap, but we are closing the gap over the next couple of months.

    “That has always been in our plan, but our biggest challenge is that the supply has not been substantially noticeable because at any point in time, we are struggling with unplanned outages. We have never put as much pipelines as we are putting it right now and the supply is being developed as well. Hopefully, we will get to a point where we will overcome this very short-term issue and people can see the benefits. A lot is going under that will make that happen,” he said.

    On whether the Joint Task Force (JTF) hired to monitor and secure the pipelines is not doing its job effectively in view of the increasing number of vandalism, Ige said: “Everybody is doing his job, but it is a very difficult problem to deal with and ultimately you need a social reengineering. These pipelines are hundreds of kilometres long and it is impossible to man every kilometre 24/7. Really, we need to get to the people who are doing this to change their attitude.

    “Social reengineering will contribute significantly to solving the problem because people need to know that there cannot be a sustainable solution in their attacking national infrastructure, it doesn’t solve their problem. There has to be a better way of agitation. For those who break crude oil pipeline for theft, we really have to reorient them because we can put as much security but we have got over 5000 kilometres of pipeline, how many security people will we put on every kilometer?” Ige queried.

  • Gas shortage cripples power supply, says NNPC

    Gas shortage cripples power supply, says NNPC

    LACK of adequate gas supply, is responsible for the poor electricity supply in the past few months, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has said.

    Its Group Executive Director, Gas and Power, Dr. David Ige, said it is a short term challenge, adding that it would ease before year end.

    Ige, who was responding to complaints and claims by the new investors in the power sector that lack of gas supply is affecing their efforts at improving supply, said their complaints were genuine. He attributed the problem to gas pipeline vandalism.

    He said: “There is truth in their complaints. Over the last two to three years, we have seen a big growth in our gas supply development. We have maximised our efforts in infrastructure; every day, we are building new pipeline infrastructure. Gas supply has grown from 500 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscf/d) three years ago to 1.5 billion standard cubic of feet per day (Bscf/d).

    “But, we are having serious short term challenge and there are two things responsible for that. One mostly arises from vandalism; so, at any point, we are repairing one pipeline or the other. Last year, Escravos Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) was down for seven months. Now ELPS is back, Trans Forcados is down. At every point, we have been experiencing one major outage or the other.”

    He continued: “And the way our system works is that the pipeline artery connects major gas supply assets. Trans Forcados is connected to Oben, Sapele and Pan Ocean assets, so when the pipeline is down, we lose the three gas plants at once. When ELPS is down, we lose Escravos, so we are truly struggling with these outages and because it happens repeatedly and there is almost no time one of them is not down. All the efforts that we have made in terms of bringing supply up, the consumers never have been able to see the full benefit of it because there is always one problem or other.”

    He also said the other dilemma is the tightness in supply. He explained that the corporation could not do the maintenance on its facilities because, this couldn’t further reduce the supply.

  • 2015: Jonathan will be the easy for APC to beat

    2015: Jonathan will be the easy for APC to beat

    Yobe State Commissioner for Water Resources Alhaji Sidi Yakubu Karasuwa has said the All Progressives Congress (APC) will defeat President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election.

    Karasuwa said: “Actually as far as we are concerned, personally I will prefer Jonathan to contest. Why? Because, he is the one we can easily beat because he has done so many things that he cannot be marketable.

    “There are a lot of things under this administration of Jonathan that one can tell Nigerians and it is not something hidden. See the corruption in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and all over the place. Today, hundreds of billions of dollars are gone; tomorrow is the same; next tomorrow is still the same? Look at his Petroleum Minister who is spending over N10billion just for charttering aircraft. What about the tragedy recently at the Immigration recruitment? The list is endless.

    “So, politically talking, politics is about presenting the score card of the present administration for you to criticise or support; so, we in APC have so many things now at hand that we can present to Nigerians and tell them that Jonathan is not competent to rule this country.

    “I heard some time that PDP wants to make him a consensus candidate and if that happens, we will have an upper hand. As far as APC is concerned, the contest will be a walk-over for us.”

     

  • NNPC denies receipt of N59.7b from Service Wide Vote

    NNPC denies receipt of N59.7b from Service Wide Vote

    •Reps summon CBN, AGF, Budget Office over ‘missing’ fund

    The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts is seeking answers to what became of the N59.7billon given to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) from the Service Wide Vote.

    According to the Solomon Adeola-Olamilekan-led committee, the fund was paid from the Service Wide Vote in 2006.

    The committee said there was need to have wider deliberations on the issue and summoned the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Jonah Otunla, the acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Sarah Alade and the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Bright Okogu.

    But the NNPC management yesterday denied receipt of the N59.7 billion allegedly approved from the Service Wide Vote for the payment of oil subsidy.

    According to Timothy Okor, NNPC’s GMD, (Strategy), the N59.6 billion was not remitted to the corporation as alleged.

    He said efforts to get the requisite documents from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and Budget Office on the payment of the N59.7 billion proved abortive.

    NNPC said attempt to make the Budget Office and the Accountant-General of the Federation Office to write a formal letter that the N59.6 billion was not cash backed was not heeded.

    The committee chairman said there was need to summon the parties to explain why the subsidy money, removed from the Service Wide Vote and meant for NNPC could not be traced.

    Olamilekan said the NNPC should write a formal letter explaining the non-receipt of the N59.6 billion from the Service Wide Vote.

    He said: “NNPC for now cannot be indicted until otherwise proven when AGF and Budget Office come out with evidence that the money was disbursed and cash backed.

    “This committee hereby summons the CBN, AGF and Budget Office to explain why such sum of money was disbursed without any documentary evidence.”

  • Jonathan’s curse?

    Jonathan’s curse?

    No, no, the curse of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Nigeria’s president, is no curse at all. It is rather a deleterious attitude to rush when he should tarry but tarry when he should rush. That way, he loses the best and retains the worst.

    Losing the best: once upon a time, there was a Barth Nnaji, the Power minister. Even when all seemed lost, and the president and commander-in-chief appeared indeed sincerely clueless, Prof. Nnaji appeared to have figured out the power problem. It was not yet Uhuru, but things were looking up.

    But pronto, Nnaji had to go! The official line was he had a conflict of interest in the power privatisation, even if he made public his interest, active or dormant, in one of the interests contesting for the power utilities. The Economist, the London weekly, also darkly hinted the former minister was edged out because his power interests collided the one of another “Oga at the top”.

    Whatever it was however, clash of interest is anti-transparency. So, maybe on sheer principle, Prof. Nnaji needed to go. But with him, appears to have gone the putative power magic, for the Nebo Chinedu power regime is more of the same old darkness.

    Again, losing the best: figuratively yesterday, there was Bolaji Abdullahi, the Sports minister, who won virtually all there was to win in African and global football: 2013 African Cup of Nations, 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup, qualification for 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, and steady ascendancy of the Super Eagles in Africa.

    But again, Mallam Abdullahi had to go, not because of his bad job record but because his political godfather became an emergency presidential “enemy”. In Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) court, loyalty and stellar service to the country are not enough. Only grovelling, flag-waving loyalty to self and party would do!

    Retaining the worst: and the Stella Odua’s Stella-gate readily comes to mind. Ms Odua, accused of blowing public money on fancy armoured vehicles rode her scandal as a whale would ride the boiling ocean, supremely convinced she would triumph. She didn’t triumph at the end, but it was not for lack of trying. Despite Stella-gate, Jonathan lost his appetite to fire, even if according to him, he has “absolute power” to hire and fire.

    Still, retaining the worst: and the latest Abba Moro eyesore is the latest of Jonathan’s stonewalling, when his presidential ire should be at its whitest. After the death-for-job scam, which claimed no less than 19 Nigerian job-seekers and youth, Jonathan has suddenly forgotten his absolute power to fire.

    If you add the case of Diezani Allison-Madueke, who continues to sit pretty in office for presiding the alleged NNPC scams and CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who promptly got booted out for blowing the whistle, it is easy to figure the Jonathan curse is a peculiar one.

    And the cheek of it: Diezani is talking of subsidy removal, after the scandalous opacity she presides over at NNPC!

    Who will cure Jonathan of his curse? Perhaps the electorate at the next vote.