The Senate has revealed plans to summon the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Port Authority (NPA), Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Dangote Group, and Minister of State for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobiri among others, for questioning over alleged economic sabotage in the country’s petroleum industry.
This was made known by the Leader of the Senate and Chairman of the Senate ad-hoc committee on “Alleged Economic Sabotage in the Nigerian Petroleum Industry” at a media briefing on Thursday.
The chairman disclosed that the 14-member committee constituted on July 23 would investigate billions of dollars spent on turnaround maintenance of the state-owned refineries in the last decade to address deep-seated challenges confronting the industry.
A public hearing scheduled for September 10 is expected to have the contractors handling the turnaround maintenance for the refineries in attendance as the ad-hoc committee prepares to visit Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Warri to engage with key actors in the petroleum industry.
In their separate remarks, members of the committee vowed to unravel the rot in the sector, declaring that it will no longer be business as usual. The committee says there would be no room for sacred cows and it is ready to issue a warrant of arrest to any head of the agency that refuses to honour the invitation for appearance.
Dangote, Authorities Clash
The move comes in the wake of the clash between the Dangote refinery and Nigeria’s regulatory authorities.
The company has been accused of rolling out substandard products, a claim the NNPCL has denied. The leadership of the House of Representatives has also visited the refinery in Lagos State during an inspection tour. The lawmakers are now investigating the claims of inferior products from the refinery.
Following the clash, the House of Representatives called for the suspension of the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) Farouk Ahmed over his “unguarded comments” about the quality of products from the Dangote Refinery.
Since the saga, several Nigerian businessmen and politicians have rallied behind the company, calling for support for entrepreneurs in the country.
ALSO READ:THE POLITICS OF OIL
Calls For Probe Of NNPC Grow
Meanwhile, some stakeholders have called for the breaking of vested interests in the Petroleum sector, particularly within the nation’s oil company that have continued to benefit from series of turnaround maintenances over the years with billions of dollars without results.
They argue that the purported cleansing of the industry and removal of the subsidy can only be meaningful only when the oil company is completely overhauled and culprits made to face the wrath of the law.