PREMIUM TIMES had exposed how the NNPC conducted a controversial bid for the sale of a N3billion consignment of slop oil.

By Emmanuel Mayah


Jolted by two consecutive investigative reports by PREMIUM TIMES x-raying procurement irregularities and sophisticated corruption of due process at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the presidency this week summoned the Corporation’s Group Managing Director (GMD), Mele Kyari, to the Villa.

The GMD was summoned to explain how, under his watch, an intricate web was woven by top officials to dispose 30 million litres of slop oil in a manner that violated the nation’s public procurement regulations.

In the wake of the inability of Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri refineries to produce Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO) as a result of a major rehabilitation exercise slated to last 44 months, slop oil is the only alternative to LPFO, a product of fractional distillation used to power boilers in manufacturing facilities, including cement factories.

Without slop oil as an alternative, most manufacturing facilities in the country would be shut down with the attendant layoff of thousands of workers.

Consequently, available slop oil in Nigeria is viewed as a national strategic stock. It is this stock that cash-hungry NNPC officials contrived and sold off to export companies who will ship them to overseas end users.

NNPC’s action outraged local stakeholders who considered the transaction as an affront on President Muhammadu Buhari’s policy of supporting local manufacturing industries as part of his post COVID-19 economic recovery plan.

On Tuesday, Mele Kyari was at the presidential Villa in response to a summon by the President, those familiar with the matter told PREMIUM TIMES.

In preparation for an inevitably difficult grilling session, the NNPC GMD, our sources said, quickly called a meeting of all his Group Executive Directors (GEDs) to marshal a defence. It was gathered that he went with a written defence.

PREMIUM TIMES had exposed how the NNPC conducted a controversial bid that saw scarce slop oil ending up in the hands of three preferred bidders, all of them in the export category.

Checks by this newspaper had further revealed that the first two bid-winning companies were owned by the same directors.

Just as Mele Kyari was facing uneasiness on his first questioning session, it emerged that the NNPC GED in charge of refineries, Mustapha Yakubu, and the Managing Director of Port Harcourt Refinery, Ahmed Dikko, remained apprehensive over what fate might befall them. Mr Dikko is said to have masterminded the controversial bid.

Some NNPC officials, industry players said, had wanted to dispose the precious slop oil through single-source procurement procedure so they could sell it off to cronies at rock-bottom price.

When they were told single source procurement would not fly in the face of procurement laws, they resorted to a cosmetic competitive bid fraught with irregularities.

The bid outcome became even more embarrassing to industry watchers when none of the preferred companies could pay for the product they won.

When Sign Oil &Gas Ltd could not pay, the allocation went to the second bid winner, Synthesis Integrated Pure Oil whose bid was about N180 million lesser than that of Sign Oil.

Both Synthesis Oil and Sign Oil are owned by the same directors. Again when Synthesis Oil could not pay, the allocation was transferred to the third place winner Kurpo Energy Ltd, whose bid was N180 million lesser than that of Synthesis Oil and N360 million lesser than that of the first bid winner, Sign Oil.

The reason for the creation of this convoluted route by NNPC officials is part of the puzzles the presidency is trying to unravel.

It is said that Mustapha Yakubu, the GED in charge of refineries, is having difficulty controlling Mr Dikko, a close ally of the GMD. To what extent Mr Kyari was able to control both Messrs Yakubu and Dikko in the saga is a matter of interest to the Presidency who have ordered the NNPC’s GMD to go and return next week with the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva.

The NNPC consistently declined multiple requests by this newspaper to comment on this matter.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/485609-presidency-angry-summons-nnpc-gmd-over-n3-billion-slop-oil-sale.html

I thought President Muhammadu Buhari was praising the same NNPC for making the highest profit

Did I see sth Kyari?

He should be hushed down like a puppy until he confesses where those looted sum were tailored to.

Era of integrity.

nairavsdollars:
I thought President Muhammadu Buhari was praising the same NNPC for making the highest profit

And today he's facing investigation to answer to issues arising from tasks he should perhaps have personally overseen instead of leaving it to his subordinates mentioned in the report.

In my opinion, it's actually a good development that he is facing inquiry from the Presidency so we don't have sacred cows.

Nice investigative journalism by Premium Times.

All the enemies of Nigeria will lose las las. They always lose. God bless Nigeria.

effty:
Era of integrity.

Buhari's administration and 'Integrity' should not be in the same sentence.


Please, always remember thanks

effty:
Era of integrity.

Era of integrity indeed..
Oh.. My.. God..
How southerners keep supporting this foolish and clannish imp still surprise me.
The entire structure of NNPC is controlled by fulanis yet southerners that are employed to be image launderers r joining to shout ONE NIJERYa

Quiet stealing?

[img]https://c./f-B1RuCGx_sAAAAC/mr-ibu-nigerian.gif[/img]

This people would bleed Nigeria to death!

.

Hmmm isoryt

Better late than never

Hehehehe this FG ehn

Clowns

They've been summoning and nothing is coming out of the summons.

The worst part is this one ended inconclusive like various others before it.

Before the next meeting, if the man arranges good ghana-must-go, he and his cronies will be left off the hook as always

"....Sophisticated corruption of due process at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation q(NNPC)..."

Abeg who is the minister of Petroleum that was lying recently that NNPC have made much profit?

[s]

effty:
Era of integrity.

[/s] "Any person who is obsessed with proclaiming his so called integrity at the slightest opportunity but won’t investigate, much less fire, shady characters he has appointed to work with and for him can’t possibly be truly a person of integrity. 

From PTF to The Buhari Organization (TBO), Buhari has consistently protected corrupt close aides from the consequences of their ethical and legal infractions.

This attitude of mollycoddling corrupt but loyal aides and appointees while pretending to be a man of “integrity” who is “fighting” corruption is getting worse by the day indicates that, in spite of self-righteous declarations to the contrary, Buhari is himself morally indistinguishable from his crooked cronies.

There is no point recalling Buhari’s overprotection of corrupt and disgraced former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir Lawal.Buhari actually wrote in his personal capacity to exonerate Lawal of corruption charges, but was later forced to eat his own vomit by firing him.To this day, Lawal hasn’t been prosecuted, is still a regular visitor to the Presidential Villa.

So it is impossible to deploy the resources of logic to argue that Buhari has integrity.He doesn’t. Well, unless integrity means something to Buhari supporters other than what it actually means in the English language."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailytrust.com.ng/amplite/adeosun-s-nysc-certificate-is-as-fake-as-buhari-s-integrity-260912.html

Well done boy

Corruption everywhere.

Kindly check my signature for your business ideas and updates

Wicked people..defrauding the nation. Setting up different company with same director just to lower bid amount...sure they have to give answer..truelly an insider job..when thier are lots of private and public company who are ready to pay better offer for this same bid..God Will keep exposing you all..

Same set of ppl.

That's why refineries don't work.
They gain from these contracts.

Now they gain from COVID.

More reason the have blocked everything.
Yet they don't care about the real workers. The real workers aren't In nnpc but the third party contractors.

This is a government committed to transparency. By investigating the issue raised by the article it has shown that non adherence to due process won't be tolerated. Let's remember most of the PDP e urchins in this thread singular problem isn't corruption it is because NNPC recorded profits that were an illusion under their locust king administration. FYI a company can make profit even if there are cases of malfeasance.

Under the locust king, Alison Madukwe not only misappropriated funds but refused summons by the NASS to clarify such misdeeds. The PDP e urchins then not only supported such evils but applauded it.

Corruption don finish Nigeria aswear.

What a country and people.

Kai

Just look at those 4 towers of corruption at NNPC.

The funniest part of the entire charade was their inability or unwillingness to still pay the rock bottom bid price.

Such a comical piece.

Hnn

This is one of the most corrupt government ever run in this country. They keep bleeping the country secretly but they cover it with the word "integrity". There is GOD wooooooh!

Lol...this is happening under our figure minister of petroleum

Buhari ruined the economy by putting inexperienced northerners and corrupt people in charge of the economy.
Now, the economy is in an plethora of freefall

One of the most corrupt big govt enterprise is NNPC. And it's allies in oil & gas regulation are alike.

Case is dead on arrival, fingers dipped in this pie are too powerful to be punished

vedaxcool:
This is a government committed to transparency. By investigating the issue raised by the article it has shown that non adherence to due process won't be tolerated. Let's remember most of the PDP e urchins in this thread singular problem isn't corruption it is because NNPC recorded profits that were an illusion under their locust king administration. FYI a company can make profit even if there are cases of malfeasance.

Under the locust king, Alison Madukwe not only misappropriated funds but refused summons by the NASS to clarify such misdeeds. The PDP e urchins then not supported such evils but applauded it.

This was me some two years ago, but we must continue liKe this. Bringing out what pdp did wrong to Justify every wrong under this inexperienced and grossly corrupt govt.
We all Know Pdp is corrupt that's why we voted for a solution