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Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has criticised Oando Plc accelerated approval of the purchase of AGIP and ENI’s onshore assets while other transactions, such as the Shell/Renaissance deal and the Mobil/Seplat, continue to suffer delays.
Atiku said the federal government should explain why Oando Plc, owned by President Bola Tinubu’s nephew, got such accelerated approval.
The former vice president further said the financial statement recently released by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) showed that the administration’s subsidy regime is a sham.
Atiku, in a statement signed by his special assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said Tinubu was not truthful about the removal of the petrol subsidies during his trips to New York, Qatar, and France, adding that he is not serious about attracting foreign direct investments (FDI).
“More worrisome is that he is not even brave enough to admit that subsidy is being paid. The NNPCL admits that N7.8tn is owed to the national oil company by the Nigerian government.
“IMF estimates that subsidy payments this year will constitute 3% of GDP, about $7.5bn. This will be about N11.8tn. Yet, the petrol scarcity continues to linger while the Tinubu administration frustrates the Dangote Refinery and its NNPCL facilities. The subsidy regime has become an even wider conduit pipe through which monies for funding the 2027 election will come from,” Atiku said.
The former vice president, while defending his claim that Oando received undue treatment in the oil and gas sector to the detriment of more competent investors, blamed the House of Representatives for failing to take proper action on the NNPCL, which has now gone ahead to “mortgage the country’s national oil assets to vested interests.”
He said, “Within just eight months, the Nigerian Upstream Production Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) approved a deal which saw the divestment of ENI/AGIP onshore assets to Oando. Within that same period, Nigeria controversially withdrew all litigation against Shell/ENI in the OPL 245 scandal in what has been described as a quid pro quo.
“However, the attempt by SEPLAT to buy Mobil’s onshore assets has continued to stall for the last three years even as the consent letter remains on Tinubu’s table. The deal between Renaissance and Shell continues to stall. The only agreement that has fully scaled through so far involves Oando. We now know why it got accelerated approval.
“Ideally, democracy should be the people’s government, for the people, and by the people. But democracy in Nigeria has become the government of Tinubu, by Tinubu, and for Tinubu and his family members.”
Atiku added, “In July 2023, the House of Representatives, following the adoption of a motion moved by Miriam Onuoha, directed NNPC Ltd to suspend the acquisition of OVH assets pending an investigation by its committee.
“The House ad-hoc committee requested the NNPC Ltd to furnish it with information about registration documents/history from CAC for OVH, Nueoil, and NNPC Retail Limited (NRL), Board Resolution of NNPC Ltd on purchase of OVH, Audited Financial Statement and Management Accounts from 2015 to date of OVH, Nueoil, NRL and NNPC Ltd and the payroll from 2015 to date for NRL and OVH; Board Resolution of NRL/CHQ for movement of head office to Lagos and evidence of Tax Payments for NRL and OVH from 2015 to date.
“The NNPC ignored all these and went ahead and transferred its ownership and properties in its retail arm to OVH, thereby mortgaging the future of Nigerians.
“Despite the rot in the oil sector, the head of the NNPC, the head of the NUPRC, and the head of the NMDPRA continue to keep their jobs. This is clear evidence that they are fulfilling the mandate given to them by Tinubu.”
Atiku accused the NNPC of lying in its response to their statement last week, adding that it is on record that the Kyari-led management appointed Huub Stoksman, a former chief executive officer of OVH Energy, as managing director of NNPC Retail, and Mumuni Dangazau, the former chief operating officer of OVH Energy, as his special adviser Downstream, long before the consummation of the marriage of the entities.
Atiku also lambasted the Tinubu administration for the rise in human rights abuses, saying Tinubu, who rode to power on claims of being a freedom fighter, has turned against the people by allowing the Department of State Services (DSS), police and even the military to abuse the rights of citizens without any consequences.
The former vice president decried the Gestapo-style citizens’ arrest without the knowledge of their relatives for several weeks.
He said journalists have been most affected since Tinubu took office for reporting the news and exposing government indiscretions.
Atiku argued that the Cyber Crime Prevention Act 2015 had become a tool with which officials in the Tinubu administration were abducting citizens while the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) had transmuted into the defunct SARS.
Atiku added, “The dangerous trend of enforced disappearances has become a national embarrassment for a country which claims to be practising democracy. On May 1, 2024, Daniel Ojukwu of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism went missing and was presumed abducted by kidnappers until he was later discovered to be in police custody on the orders of IGP Kayode Egbetokun.
“Ojukwu’s crime was exposing the corruption of a government official who currently serves in Tinubu’s administration. On July 23, the DSS arrested one Aliyu Sanusi in Sama Road of Sokoto, the state capital for printing and distributing materials ahead of the #EndBadGovernanceProtest Even the arrest and release of the former BBC Pidgin Editor and current West Africa Regional Editor of the Conversation, Adejuwon Soyinka, clearly shows a pattern, which objective is to intimidate journalists for speaking truth to this government.
“Now, the police have arrested Bristol Tamunobiefiri, who owns the PIDOM Nigeria blog on X, formerly Twitter. After detaining him for over two weeks, he was granted administrative bail, which would have been impossible. This is even though the Appeal Court held that administrative bail is illegal in the case of EFCC V. Emem Uboh (2022) LPEIR – 57968 (CA). Bristol should, therefore, be arraigned in court immediately or released.”
Atiku advised Tinubu to take cases of human rights abuses seriously, or Nigeria would remain at risk of being slammed with sanctions which would prevent Western powers from selling weapons, a development he argues could undermine Nigeria’s ability to tackle insecurity.
“Amnesty International still has a pending petition before the Foreign Committee of the US Congress against the sale of weapons to Nigeria due to human rights concerns in line with the Leahy Law. Tinubu would do well to curb these rights abuses by law enforcement authorities who all report to him as commander-in-chief,” the former vice president said.
English (US) ·