Senators accuse NNPC of conniving with pipelinevandals, orders returns of N382.2m

.We’ll assure transparency in selection of lead insurer for oil assets-NNPC

The Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria have accused the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of conniving  with pipeline vandals and ordered refund of N382.2million to the treasury. 

This is even as the Corporation assured that the process of selecting its lead insurer for its oil assets in the 2020/2021 would be transparent, just as is the practice in other areas of the corporation’s operation nationwide.

But the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, in his remarks after the consideration on the plenary of the Ad Hoc Committee on Pipeline Explosions on Tuesday said that officials of government conniving with criminals in vandalising oil pipelines should be sanctioned and prosecuted.

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He, also, directed the Senate Committee on Petroleum (downstream) to invite the NNPC with a view to ensuring a review of security measures for pipelines in parts of the country. The President of the Senate also revealed that, the National Assembly will amend the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) Act to prevent the activities of pipeline vandals that leads to explosions and deaths and also the Committee on Petroleum (downstream) should invite the NNPC with a view to know what they have been doing over the years to secure the pipelines, measures put in place and whether there is a need to review these agreements. 

 “This is a multi-billion dollar industry, people consciously do these things, it is not an accident. Those who are caught in the fires or who come to scavenge are the ones who end up losing their lives. This is not acceptable”

“There must be sanctions, somebody will have to pay the price and of course, after these resolutions are sent to the executive, our committee must follow it up.

“If we need to amend the NOSDRA Act, this is something we must do expeditiously because it will help in preventing or minimising the reoccurrence of these criminal acts” he stated. 

Senator Ibikunle Amosun (APC, Ogun Central), accused the NNPC of conniving with vandals to sabotage the economy by encouraging the activities of oil pipeline vandals.

The former governor of Ogun state said, pipeline vandalism is not an act of negligence but connivance because NNPC knows from their office when a pipeline is vandalised, he added that ” the corporation knows what to do and cannot claim ignorance. 

 In his contribution to the report, Senator Chukwuka Utazi (PDP, Enugu North) blamed the activities of pipeline vandals on officials of  NNPC.

The lawmaker called for the introduction of punishment for any official of the corporation caught conniving with pipeline vandals, as If there is no punishment for any offence, the tendency that it will be repeated severally will be there. In a related development, the Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Mallam Mele Kyari, on Tuesday gave the assurance that there would be transparency in the selection of the insurer for its oil assets.

He made this disclosure during the public bid opening exercise for companies that participated in the expression of interest as lead insurer for the corporation’s oil assets for 2020/2021.

“I am reassuring this country and the rest of our stakeholders that we are poised to make sure that this company acts and works transparently; we will remain accountable to our stakeholders. As a matter of duty for me and the management team, we will deliver on this”, the GMD stated. He advised the companies that participated in the bid to accept the results as only the best would emerge the winner.

Also speaking at the event, the Chief Financial Officer of the corporation, Mr Umar Ajiya, said a key attribute of an organization like the NNPC was the protection of human assets, adding that the exercise was in pursuance of that objective.

He disclosed that a total of 42 companies submitted bids for the lead insurer contract, adding that each of the bids would be assessed on its own merit.

On hand to witness the bid opening process to ensure conformity with the public procurement law were representatives of the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), National Insurance Commission, and civil society organisations.