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House of Reps Halt Privatization of Refineries by NNPC
Posted by George on Thu 26th May, 2016 - tori.ngThe lower lawmaking chamber in Nigeria has halted the plans of the nation's oil companies to privatise the oil refineries pending on the appearance of the Minister of state for petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu.
The House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation yesterday, halted the proposed privatisation of the country’s three refineries by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
The affected refineries are located in Kaduna, Port-Harcourt and Warri. The Committee, which is investigating the move to sell the refineries by the NNPC rather than the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) declared that NNPC violated the provisions of the BPE Act Section 2, 2009.
Chairman of the Committee, Ahmed Yerima, further declared that the NNPC acted unilaterally by going ahead with the exercise without involving other stakeholders as contained in the Act.
The Committee had before issuing it’s directive insisted on adjourning the hearing due to the absence of the Group Managing Director of NNPC and Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu.
The lawmakers were not impressed with explanations from the Group Executive Director of the NNPC in charge of Refineries, Anibor Kragha, that he had the full mandate of the Minister to clarify the position of the Corporation on the matter as he is directly involved in managing the refineries.
Members of the Committee kicked against the arrangement, insisting that the Minister of State should appear personally at a later date based on their past experiences with the Corporation when its chief executives had failed to honour invitations extended to it.
But after assurances from the NNPC GED that he had the mandate of the Minister to represent him and that he was competent to handle the matter in question, Kragha went on to make his presentation along with the Acting BPE Director General, Vincent Akpotarie, during which he denied that the Corporation was out to privatise the refineries. According to him, NNPC was only seeking for core investors to invest in the refineries.
In response, the Committee sought to know who authorised it to embark on such an exercise without the knowledge of the National Assembly and the BPE to which Kragha replied that he needed clarification on this, saying that he was just appointed into the office.
The affected refineries are located in Kaduna, Port-Harcourt and Warri. The Committee, which is investigating the move to sell the refineries by the NNPC rather than the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) declared that NNPC violated the provisions of the BPE Act Section 2, 2009.
Chairman of the Committee, Ahmed Yerima, further declared that the NNPC acted unilaterally by going ahead with the exercise without involving other stakeholders as contained in the Act.
The Committee had before issuing it’s directive insisted on adjourning the hearing due to the absence of the Group Managing Director of NNPC and Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu.
The lawmakers were not impressed with explanations from the Group Executive Director of the NNPC in charge of Refineries, Anibor Kragha, that he had the full mandate of the Minister to clarify the position of the Corporation on the matter as he is directly involved in managing the refineries.
Members of the Committee kicked against the arrangement, insisting that the Minister of State should appear personally at a later date based on their past experiences with the Corporation when its chief executives had failed to honour invitations extended to it.
But after assurances from the NNPC GED that he had the mandate of the Minister to represent him and that he was competent to handle the matter in question, Kragha went on to make his presentation along with the Acting BPE Director General, Vincent Akpotarie, during which he denied that the Corporation was out to privatise the refineries. According to him, NNPC was only seeking for core investors to invest in the refineries.
In response, the Committee sought to know who authorised it to embark on such an exercise without the knowledge of the National Assembly and the BPE to which Kragha replied that he needed clarification on this, saying that he was just appointed into the office.
Source: Daily Sun
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