Falana: NNPC wrong to reject my request on disgraceful importation of fuel

Femi Falana, human rights lawyer, has criticised the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for rejecting a request to provide information on the amount of money spent on petrol subsidy and turnaround maintenance of refineries.

Using the freedom of information (FOI) act, Falana asked the commission to disclose the revenue realised from the sale of the daily allocation of 445,000 barrels of crude oil from June 1, 2015 to December 31, 2017, and the amount utilised as subsidy and the amount remitted to the federation account from revenue realised from the crude oil sales.

In a letter dated March 1, the NNPC said it is not a public institution that could be compelled to provide the information.

“We regret to inform you that the NNPC is not in a position to provide any information or document as your request is incongruous with, unsupported by or outside the scope and purview of the Freedom of Information Act. Be informed that the FOI act is not applicable to the NNPC because it is not a public institution within the meaning of Section 31 of FOIA,” the letter read.

But the lawyer tackled NNPC in a paper titled ‘Advancing the anti-corruption fight: the role of lawyers’, delivered at the “Say No Campaign” launched in Abuja on Saturday.

“The erroneous submission that the NNPC is not a public institution is embarrassing in that their counsel did not advert her mind to section 2(7) of the freedom of information act which has defined public institutions to include the NNPC,” he said.

“Contrary to the untenable contention of the counsel the NNPC is a public institution as the federal government has a controlling interest in it and it is utilising public funds to provide public services. Indeed, because the NNPC is a public institution its budget is appropriated by the national assembly while its accounts are audited by auditors appointed by the auditor-general of the federation in line with section 85 of the constitution.

“In exercise of its oversight functions, the national assembly regularly conducts investigation into allegations of corrupt practices. Of course, the NNPC board reports to President Buhari in his capacity as the head of the federal government while the NNPC Management reports to him as the Minister of the petroleum resources. It is therefore preposterous to say that the corporation is not a public institution.

“Under the FOI Act, public institutions mean all authorities whether executive, legislative or judicial agencies, ministries and extra-ministerial departments of government, together with all corporations established by law and all companies in which government has a controlling interest, and private companies utilizing public funds, providing public services or performing public functions.

“In exercise of my right under the freedom of information act, I have had cause to request the NNPC to provide information on the fuel importation scam. As it has no answer to the questions which I raised the NNPC claimed that it is not a public institution. In justifying the rejection of our request for information with respect to the disgraceful importation of fuel by Nigeria, a leading oil producing nation the NNPC Counsel claimed that the corporation is not bound by the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. With respect, the misleading submission of the counsel does not represent the position of the management of the NNPC.”

Falana wondered why the corporation made public details of the cost of fuel importation yet rejected his own request.

He said the action of the agency contradicts Buhari’s position of transparency in the oil firm.

“The decision of the NNPC management to give details of the cost of importation of fuel has exposed the claim of the counsel that such matters are ‘trade secrets’ which cannot be disclosed “in the public interest” under the Freedom of Information Act. Since the Board and Management of the NNPC have not had cause to renounce the commitment of the Corporation to comply with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act you ought to make it clear to the Counsel that the days of opacity the running NNPC are over.”

“More so, that President Muhammadu Buhari had stated during the inauguration of the current NNPC board on November 18, 2016 that ‘Since the arrival of this administration, there has been an improvement in transparency through publishing monthly operational and financial report of the corporation’. ”

TheCable had fact-checked the claim of NNPC and discovered that it is false.