By Christiana Ekpa
Amid probe of the alleged loss of over $2.4 billion in revenue from illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil export in 2015 and the call for President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a presidential panel of enquiry to probe allegations that over 149 million barrels of crude oil are missing, as documented in the 2019 reports by the Auditor General of the Federation and Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), the Conference Of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has said that such investigation by the current administration will be fruitless.
In a statement signed by its Secretary General, Willy Ezugwu, the CNPP noted that President Muhammadu Buhari cannot probe himself as the Minister of Petroleum Resources since 2015.
While SERAP also urged the President to ensure prosecution of anyone suspected to be responsible for plundering the country’s oil wealth and make full recovery of any proceeds of crime, the House of Reps Committee on Oil Theft is inviting several high-ranking officials over alleged missing 149 million barrels of crude oil in 2019.
But the CNPP maintained that “it will be futile for any citizen or member of the civil society community to get NNPC management team to account for their stewardship or be held accountable for their alleged financial and economic crimes under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration or any All Progressives Congress (APC)-controlled government.
“Recall that the CNPP as the umbrella body of all registered political parties and political associations had expressed worries that while oil producing countries globally were experiencing a boost in their revenue generation as a result of increasing international prices of crude oil, Nigeria continued to suffer decline in earnings, had in 2022 reiterated it’s earlier call for the sack of the management team of the newly registered Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Limited), urging President Muhammadu Buhari to replace them with prudent private sector players to save the country’s economy.
“However, President Muhammadu Buhari, as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, has so far refused to take any decisive action against the NNPC management team led by Mallam Mele Kyari whose leadership has wasted more funds and contributed less revenue to the federal treasury than the NNPC under the corrupt Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government which the APC constantly criticised before its members got into office in 2015.
“More worrisome is that the National Assembly progressively failed exercise its oversight powers on the NNPC to serve as clog in the speedy wheels of a strategic corporation managed by very corrupt individuals like the NNPC.
“Nigerians had expected that a Buhari-led administration will end corruption in the country, especially in a government owned corporation or company like the NNPC, but this was not the case in the last eight years.
“While corruption continued to thrive unbridled at the NNPC under Mallam Mele Kyari, the Federation Government of Nigeria opted to continue to borrow money in connivance with a rubber stamp National Assembly, where equally corrupt politicians have retired into as legislators to seemingly help cover the track of serving executives.
“Therefore, only an independent investigative panel under a sincere Executive or Legislature can effectively probe NNPC Limited or any other parastatal or institution of government.
