Mohammed Shosanya
9 November 2009
Lagos — The verdict passed on the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiary, the Petroleum and Pipelines Marketing Company (PPMC) by the House of Representatives at the its inquest into the allegation of sharp practices in the award and execution of fuel import contracts has been described as a charade by the Trade Union Congress[TUC]
President of the Congress Peter Esele told our correspondent yesterday that the way the lawmakers exonerated the NNPC and PPMC showed that the committee has a skeleton in its cupboard.
According to Esele, one of the House Committee members was reported to be a petroleum dealer, adding that the development was a manifestation that the fact-finding team would give a soft verdict on the corporation. A national newspaper had reported penultimate week that a cartel within the NNPC was collecting a kickback of N75m daily from international commodities traders namely, Trafigura, Glencore and Vitol to sustain the fuel import contracts.
It also alleged that the NNPC had abandoned its Atlas Cove storage jetty in preference for private depots because of the pecuniary interest of some unnamed NNPC officials.
Speaking last Thursday after a fact-finding tour across the Atlas Cove, Capital Oil depot and the Folawiyo Jetty in Lagos, the Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Downstream, Clever Ikisikpo, gave the Corporation a clean bill of health while explaining that there was nothing on ground to justify the allegations against the NNPC management by the newspaper.
But Esele told our correspondent that there was nothing on ground to show that the House did a thorough job on the probe.He said the NNPC recently sponsored the members of the House of Representatives on a trip to Akwa-Ibom and wondered how the lawmakers would now turn against the fingers that spoon fed them.
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