$2.4 BILLION MISSING OIL: Malami Bows To Pressure, To Appear Before Reps Panel

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The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami yesterday expressed readiness to provide relevant information on the alleged sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil amounting to over $2.4 billion and crude oil export to global destinations from 2014 to date.The Minister stated this through a letter sent to the Ad-hoc Committee chaired by Hon. Mark Gbillah, during the resumed investigative hearing.

Gbillah, while acknowledging the receipt of the letter said:  “Today we are in receipt of a letter from the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice who is averring his determination to respect the doctrine of separation of powers and to support our extant laws.“And he has indicated the fact that they are trying to put together the comprehensive response that we have raised.

“While we appreciate the Attorney General’s response we would like to indicate that it came later than we expected and it came without the response that we referred to. So, we will appreciate if the Attorney General and Minister provides these responses and to also appear before the Committee next Thursday. So, let’s give him the window to appear before the Committee.”

He, however, noted that, “unfortunately the Minister of Finance has still been evasive.”“The Committee has not received any submission or response from the Minister of Finance. The Accountant General sent a response and has not responded to our follow up because we asked further questions to what he provided us information about.

“But we want to call on the Minister of Finance, like the Attorney General to show regards and respect for the separation of powers as enshrined in our constitution, and respond promptly to the request of the Committee so that we can get to the bottom of our investigation.“Like I already said, we are giving her the benefits of doubt; we are not unmindful of the other powers we have and we are not afraid to exert them and we will do so if the leeway we have provided is still neglected and not recognized by the Minister of Finance.”

Consequently, the lawmakers quizzed management staff of some oil companies involved in the lifting and sales of crude oil to global destinations in furtherance of the investigation into alleged sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil amounting to over $2.4 billion and crude oil export to global destinations from 2014 to date.Some of the companies who appeared before the Ad-hoc Committee uncovered unsigned and unstamped documents submitted by Equinor Nigeria Energy Company.

Other companies included: Millennium Oil and Gas Company, SAPETRO, PANAMA, Moni Pulo and some banks operating in the country. including Union Bank and Ecobank Nigeria Limited.Speaking during the investigative hearing into the activities of Equinor with respect to the OML 129, the Committee frowned at the inability of the company to effectively operate the asset as well as breach of extant laws, thereby resulting into loss of revenue to the Federation.However, Equinor’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Charles Nwoko, said the company was looking at the most commercially viable way to bring value to the Nigerian government.

Furthermore, Nwoko, who affirmed that the oil company is owned by the Norwegian Government, said, “we’ve been instrumental to the development of oil and gas in Nigeria as well as capacity development. We’ve had extensive relationship with NPD – Norwegian Petroleum Directorate and DPR and of course in building capacity.

“So, it is something that we are mindful of and we have concern about this. So, it’s not that we have been sitting on our arms and not doing anything. We are working tenaciously on this.”

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