The Nigerian National Petroleum Coporation, NNPC, has said the invitation of some of its officials by relevant security agencies probing the crude oil swap deals was normal.
In the last four weeks, it was reported that operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Department of State Services (DSS), have been asking questions and inviting some officials of the NNPC to shed more light on the swap crude oil-for-refined-products-exchange programme and Offshore Processing Agreement (OPA).
In a statement by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, the NNPC noted that “the invitation of the officials is nothing unusual as NNPC regularly interfaces with other government agencies to provide information on relevant activities of the Corporation”.
Mr. Alegbe described the report of its officials’ arrest as “mischievous” and “falsehoods concocted to spruce up an otherwise baseless story to deliberately misinform the public and cast the Corporation in unflattering colours”.
The statement further frowned at the report which, it says, creates the impression that NNPC officials and indeed the Corporation may have been indicted for some criminal act or wrongdoing.
“We, therefore, wish to state in most unequivocal terms that the NNPC officials named in the said publication are scheduled and delegated management staff of the Corporation who only carried out their legitimate official assignments within the NNPC and were only invited to shed light on same by the law enforcement agencies.
“None of the NNPC officials was arrested or detained by the EFCC or the DSS in connection with investigation into the crude swap programme and the offshore processing agreement and none of the NNPC officials has had his international passport seized by any of the law enforcement agencies mentioned in connection with the investigation”, the statement added.
A member of the Unity Forum, Senator Kabiru Marafa, has accused the clerk of the National Assembly (CNA) of fraud for his actions during the June 9 Senate elections that produced Senator Bukola Saraki as president of the 8th Senate. According to him, the CNA amended the Senate Standing Order without the knowledge of the senators, thereby changing the Standing Rule of the Senate – that for any presiding officer to emerge, he must score two-thirds votes of the number of the senators, and not one-third as the CNA stated before the said election. Marafa, who spoke in Abuja yesterday, alleged that the amended Senate Standing Order used in the June 9 inauguration of presiding officers was not known to him and that he was not aware of any amendment of the Standing Rule by the 7th Senate, and whoever must have amended the rules without the knowledge of the senators must be prosecuted. He said, “Senate Amended Rule 2015 is a fraud; the person who did it has to be brought to book. ...
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