BEVERLY HILLS, November 12, (THEWILL) – The Ad-hoc Committee investigating the offshore processing arrangement and the crude oil swap contracts, Thursday, threatened to arrest the newly-appointed minister of state for petroleum resources, Emmanuel Kachikwu, should he fail to submit details of the contract agreements by next Wednesday.
Zakari Mohammed, who chaired the Committee, issued the threat notice at the post-Ad-hoc Committee meeting held at the National Assembly complex, Abuja, urged President Muhammadu Buhari, who doubles as minister of petroleum resources, to clean up the existing ‘rot’ in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Mohammed, who gave the update on the work of the Ad-hoc Committee so far, accused NNPC, Petroleum Product Marketing Company (PPMC) and crude oil department of frustrating the assignment of the committee.
He explained that the agencies had failed to provide relevant documents on the transactions including contract bids, awards and transfer of bids, contract agreements and completion of contract certificate between 2010 and 2014, despite several letters written by the committee.
Mohammed, who threatened to impose subpoena on any erring officials, however applauded the compliance of Nigerian Custom Service (NCS), Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
He said: “While the Nigerian Customs Service, NEITI and DPR have complied with the letter from the committee by making their submissions, we are having difficulties with the NNPC, the Crude Oil division and the PPMC and you are all aware pursuant to section 88 and 89, we have been empowered to expose corruption at the same time be able to straighten the books.
“But as it appears that the NNPC is trying to subvert our investigation, we have written them a letter just like every other agency those ones have responded, the NNPC hasn’t responded, the crude division and the PPMC and we wrote a remainder, they only responded passively on Tuesday, saying that they need more time.
“If by 12 noon on Wednesday, we do not get the submissions from them, we will allow the full weight of the law to take its cause including subpoena. We will take actions.”
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