Keyamo urges national assembly to probe Diezani, Moneke over ‘crude oil swap deal’

Human rights lawyer Festus Keyamo wants members of the eighth national assembly to investigate Diezani Alison-Madueke and other key figures in the country’s petroleum sector for the “massive fraud” in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on the crude oil swap programme and the Offshore Processing Agreements (OPAs).

Others he listed for investigation are Tony Moneke, managing director of NNPC; Frank Amejo, executive director, commercial, Pipelines and Product Marketing company (PPMC); Gbenga Komolafe, group general manager, Crude Oil Marketing Division; Abiye Membere, former managing director of NPDC, and later NNPC group executive director, E & P.

In a letter to the senate president and speaker of the federal house of representatives on Wednesday, June 17, Keyamo said he was “compelled to write the petition because of the recent disturbing reports in the press about the massive looting of state resources by some unscrupulous officials of the NNPC in collusion with some local companies in the oil and gas sector”.

In the letter, he wrote: “The facts as I understand them are as follows:

“(1) The Crude Oil Swaps refer to an arrangement whereby about fifty percent (50%) of the nation’s daily quota of crude oil meant for domestic refining and consumption are given to some local companies in the oil and gas sector which then sell the products in the international market and thereafter import petroleum products, including derivatives or byproducts on behalf of the NNPC and PPMC for sale and distribution in the country. For the records, our daily quota of crude oil for local consumption is about 445,000 barrels. This arrangement was necessitated by the inability of our local refineries to operate at their fully installed capacities which would have been able to refine all the daily domestic quota of crude oil.

“(2) The Offshore Processing Agreements (OPAs) involved the allocation of the daily domestic quota of crude oil to some local companies in the oil and gas sector. The companies then take the crude oil to refineries outside the country, refine them into petroleum products, including derivatives or byproducts, and import them into the country on behalf of the PPMC.

“(3) The colossal fraud in both programmes have reportedly started and heightened in recent years. The frauds occur when far less quantity of petroleum products, byproducts and derivatives are imported into the country by the local companies in exchange for the crude oil allocated to them by the NNPC.

“(4) The staggering shortfalls in the imported products are done with the active connivance, collusion and knowledge of the officials of the NNPC. The proceeds are, of course, subsequently shared between the NNPC officials and these local companies. In fact, it is reported that a colossal sum of about $50billion (fifty billion dollars) have been stolen by these people through these fraudulent programmes in the last few years.

“In particular, I humbly request that you direct your searchlight on these officials of the NNPC who are already under probe by the EFCC and DSS: (a) Managing Director of NNPC, Mr. Tony Moneke; (b) Executive Director, Commercial, PPMC, Mr. Frank Amejo; (c) Group General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Division, Mr. Gbenga Komolafe; (d) Former Managing Director of NPDC, and later NNPC Group Executive Director, E & P, Mr. Abiye Membere.

“I also urge you to invite the following private, local companies in the oil and gas sector in the course of your probe to assist in getting to the bottom of the whole sordid affair: (a) AITEO that is owned by Mr. Benny Peters; (b) Sahara Energy owned by Tonye Cole, Tope Sonubi and Ade Odunsi; (c) Ontario Oil and Gas owned by Walter Wagbatsoma; (d) Taleveras founded by Mr. Igho Sanomi.”

Keyamo said it was also necessary to probe the role that may have been played by Allison-Madueke, immediate past minister of petroleum resources, in the massive fraud.

“Even though I understand she also wrote a petition in this regard few days before leaving office, it is not always the case that it is the person that runs first to the police station to report an incident that is the victim,” he said.

“I find it extremely curious that she waited till a few days to the end of her tenure before writing that petition. I also find it curious that she wrote a petition in respect of matters over which she had total control and in respect of which she had complete access to all the documents and personnel involved. In fact, the above-mentioned personnel were her subordinates whom she could have queried long ago if she smelt any rat. Her petition is akin to the case of a father who invites third parties to come and discipline his children.

“Dear distinguished and Honourable compatriots, I also invite you to ascertain, in the course of your probe, whether such programmes, even if not subject to abuse, are proper and economically dexterous for us as a nation. This is with a view to recommend whether to continue with or to scrap such programmes or to continue them with necessary alterations and checks.

“Although the reports indicate that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Department of State Services have started some discreet investigation into the issue, I am concerned that, as usual, the Nigerian people whom you represent would be perpetually kept in the dark about these investigations and their outcome. Kindly note that your investigative powers as lawmakers under section 88(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) is to “expose corruption, inefficiency or waste in the execution or administration of laws within its legislative competence and in the disbursement or administration of funds appropriated by it”.

“The danger in not exposing these acts of corruption through open and public hearings is that even the investigators may be tempted to engage in cover-ups and under-hand dealings because of the colossal sums involved in these shady deals. Besides, the Nigerian people deserve to know why, in spite of our enormous resources, they do not have access to good health facilities, power supply, good roads, clean water and affordable housing; they deserve to know how bogus schemes such as the subject of this petition, deprive them of such basic social amenities.

“In the circumstances, I pray that you invoke your sense of duty and patriotism and your powers under section 88 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and order an open probe into this humongous perfidy in the NNPC and, at the end, strongly recommend that all those found wanting should be brought to book through the appropriate legal channels.”