A request has been made by Ezekwesili for an audit of the business dealings between Dangote and NNPCL.
A former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has recommended an independent audit of commercial transactions between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the ”angote Refinery.
This recommendation follows the recent disclosure by the
Chief Executive Officer of the Dangote Group and owner of the Dangote Refinery,
Aliko Dangote, that NNPCL had limited its equity in the Dangote Petroleum
Refinery to 7.2 per cent, contrary to earlier speculations of 20 per cent.
“The initial agreement with NNPC was for a 20% stake, but
they have not paid the remaining balance as of last year. We granted an
extension until June 2024, and they indicated that they would maintain their
current 7.2% stake. Therefore, NNPC currently holds a 7.2% stake, not the
initially agreed-upon 20%.” Dangote stated.
NNPC confirmed its decision not to make further investments
in the refinery.
In response to the recent controversies surrounding the
Dangote refinery-NNPC saga, Ezekwesili, via her official X handle, stated that
she had previously chosen to refrain from commenting on the matter.
“However, as more and more information filtered out from
both parties, we can reasonably conclude that something seriously murky has
gone on and needs to be fully unravelled for public accountability. And
urgently, too,” she stated.
The former minister added, “How can a project that by all
definition attained the stature of a ‘national interest project’ be marred in
this depth of embarrassing controversy that is playing out in the full glare of
the local and international investing community?
“Did the Nigerian government not tell us it borrowed $3.3bn
from Afriexim-Bank to take a stake in the Dangote refinery?”
Ezekwesili remembered informing the NNPC during former
President Olusegun Obasanjo's tenure that it was not capable of operating
independently as a federation.
“When we were in government, I often told the NNPC
leadership that they cannot carry on as though there is a ‘Federal Republic of
the NNPC’ just because they think of themselves as ‘the goose that lays the
golden egg’.
“The opacity of the NNPC was the reason we took great
delight in designing the multi-stakeholders Nigeria Extractive Industries
Transparency International in those early 2000s that I pioneered as
Chairperson.
“We went above global minimum voluntary standards of
transparency requirements by entrenching ours in an Act that established NEITI
as the transparency regulator of the oil and minerals sector,” she explained.
She requested that President Bola Tinubu promptly initiate
an independent audit of the Dangote refinery-NNPC transaction through NEITI to
provide the public with accurate information regarding the transaction.
It has been alleged by Dangote that certain high-ranking
officials within the NNPCL possess blending facilities in Malta.
Dangote had said, “Some of the terminals, some of the NNPC
people, and some traders have opened blending plants somewhere off Malta. We
all know these areas. We know what they are doing.”
In response to recent allegations circulating on social
media, Kyari clarified that he does not own a blending plant in Malta. He
received numerous inquiries from concerned family members and friends regarding
the veracity of this claim, which he firmly denies.
The head of NNPC stated that he has no ownership or
involvement in any business, either directly or indirectly, anywhere in the
world, except for a small-scale agricultural venture locally.