Create panel to probe ‘corruption’ in NNPC operations, media group tells Tinubu

Journalists for Democratic Rights (JODER) has asked President Bola Tinubu to set up an independent judicial panel of enquiry to probe the allegations of corruption in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited and the World Bank operations.

The media and democratic rights group, established in 1996, asked the president to immediately establish a panel that would have people like Femi Falana, lawyer and human rights advocate, Jibrin Ibrahim, senior fellow, Centre for Democracy and Development, Olisa Agbakoba, former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) president, and other credible Nigerians on it.

On July 22, Aliko Dangote, chairman of Dangote Group, alleged some NNPC personnel, oil traders and terminals have opened a blending plant in Malta.

Speaking to ThisDay, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, minister of women affairs, also alleged being victimised by some cabals in government because she refused to sign a $500 million World Bank loan request.

In a statement on Wednesday, JODER said Nigeria does not need just a panel of enquiry, but one that would command public respect.

The group said corruption is at the core of Nigeria’s underdevelopment and the root cause of violence and extremism that has taken a foothold in many parts of the country.

JODER urged Tinubu to acknowledge the “significant illicit practices” associated with NNPC and World Bank operations in Nigeria, which further tarnishes the country’s global reputation.

The group accused World Bank officials of being Nigerians and European rogue cartels, aiming to maintain Nigeria as a satellite state, despite “false assistance and development partnerships”.

The media group described the two revelations on the World Bank and the NNPC as the “biggest scam in African recent history”.

‘TINUBU SHOULD SUSPEND COMPLICIT NNPC OFFICIALS’ 

According to JODER, Tinubu is expected to suspend NNPC officials whose names have been associated with the scam.

“The NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari and the Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed should be suspended immediately,” the group said.

“The Federal Government should also demand immediate suspension of the World Bank representative in Nigeria pending the outcome of the investigation.”

The group said the disclosures of the minister and Dangote have brutally shaken the faith of Nigerians beyond measure, raising the fear that there would be no chance of redemption. 

“The President needs to give hope to a despairing population that seems to have resigned to hopelessness and frustration. These two issues of high level corruption must never be swept under the carpet,” the group said.

“A probe is what is necessary for Nigeria to regain a bit of her totally lost reputation on the global map.

“With these revelations, it shows clearly that the World Bank loan is a big scam,  a conscious plot to stunt Nigeria’s search for economic freedom.”

According to JODER, this signifies that the loans largely go into private pockets.