Atiku asks FG to explain Oando’s ‘accelerated approval’ in AGIP-ENI deal

Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president, has asked the federal government to explain why Oando Plc, “owned by the president’s nephew”, received accelerated approval to buy the onshore assets of Agip and Eni while other transactions — such as the Shell/Renaissance and the Mobil/Seplat deals — continue to suffer delays.

On September 4, 2023, Oando Plc said it had reached an agreement with Eni, an Italian oil major, on the acquisition of a 100 percent stake in its subsidiary — the Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited (NAOC Ltd).

Eni, on July 24, said it received regulatory approval from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) for the sale of the NAOC Ltd to Oando.

On August 22, Oando said it completed the acquisition of Eni’s 100 percent shareholding in the NAOC for $783 million.

Reacting to this in a statement on Sunday by Phrank Shaibu, Abubakar’s special assistant on public communication, the former vice-president said Oando was being given “undue and preferential treatment in the oil and gas sector to the detriment of more competent investors”.

He also slammed the house of representatives for failing to take proper action on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited which has now gone ahead to “mortgage the country’s national oil assets to vested interests”.

“Within just eight months, the Nigerian Upstream Production (sic) Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) approved a deal which saw the divestment of ENI/AGIP onshore assets to Oando,” he said.

“Within that same period, Nigeria controversially withdrew all litigation against Shell/ENI in the OPL 245 scandal in what has been described as a quid pro quo.

“However, the attempt by SEPLAT to buy Mobil’s onshore assets has continued to stall for the last three years even as the consent letter remains on Tinubu’s table.

“The deal between Renaissance and Shell continues to stall. The only deal that has fully scaled through so far is the one involving Oando. We now know why it got accelerated approval.”

Speaking further, Atiku flayed the incumbent government “for implementing a sham subsidy regime” based on the financial statement recently released by the NNPC.

“Tinubu visited the FMDQ in New York, visited Qatar, visited France where he told lies about removing petrol subsidies. This is not a man who is serious about attracting FDI,” Abubakar said.

“More worrisome is that he is not even brave enough to admit that subsidy is being paid. The NNPCL admits that N7.8tn is owed to the national oil company by the Nigerian government.

“IMF estimates that subsidy payments this year will constitute 3% of GDP, which is about $7.5bn. This will be about N11.8tn.

“Yet, the petrol scarcity continues to linger while the Tinubu administration continues to frustrate the Dangote Refinery and even its own NNPCL facilities.

“The subsidy regime has become an even wider conduit pipe through which monies for funding the 2027 election will come from.”

The politician also said the NNPC “lied in its vacuous response to their statement last week”.

“It is on record that the Kyari-led management appointed Huub Stoksman, a former chief executive officer of OVH Energy, as managing director of NNPC retail, and Mumuni Dangazau, the former chief operating officer of OVH Energy, as his special adviser downstream, long before the consummation of the incestuous marriage of the entities,” he said.

‘OVH DEAL JUMPED PENDING INVESTIGATION’

Abubakar said in July 2023, the house of representatives, following the adoption of a motion moved by Miriam Onuoha, directed NNPC to suspend the acquisition of OVH assets pending an investigation by its committee.

“The House ad-hoc committee requested the NNPC Ltd to furnish it with information about registration documents/history from CAC for OVH, Nueoil, and NNPC Retail Limited (NRL), Board Resolution of NNPC Ltd on purchase of OVH, Audited Financial Statement and Management Accounts from 2015 to date of OVH, Nueoil, NRL and NNPC Ltd and the payroll from 2015 to date for NRL and OVH; Board Resolution of NRL/CHQ for movement of head office to Lagos and evidence of Tax Payments for NRL and OVH from 2015 to date,” he said.

“The NNPC ignored all these and went ahead to transfer its ownership and properties in its retail arm to OVH, thereby mortgaging the future of Nigerians.

“Despite the rot in the oil sector, the head of the NNPC, the head of the NUPRC, and the head of the NMDPRA continue to keep their jobs.”

Abubaker said these are “clear evidence that they are fulfilling the mandate given to them by Tinubu”.