The House of Representatives, on Wednesday, threatened to suspend the contract of the Consortium of oil companies engaged by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) under the Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) for the importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) into the country.
Chairman, Ad-hoc Committee investigating the daily consumption of Petroleum Motor Spirit in the country, Hon Abdulkadir Sa’ad Abdullahi, issued the threat notice.
Worried by the unsatisfactory response of the Consortium’s delegation who appeared before the Ad-hoc Committee, the lawmakers asked NNPC Limited management to provide a detailed profile of members of the Consortium who participated in the contracts, namely: Ashgroup Energy Ltd; Jack Energy Solutions Ltd and Vitol SA, a Switzerland based Company.
While responding to questions from the lawmakers, Mr Murtala Baloni, who spoke on behalf of the Company emphasised that, as stated in the letter, Vitol SA will run foul of a particular Swiss law if it divulges the information without the consent of Swiss authorities.
He, however, expressed the Company’s resolve to provide all the necessary information regarding the DSDP arrangement with the NNPC.
However, members of the Committee were not satisfied with the explanations given by Murtala Baloni about the involvement of the Consortium and the role of Mansel in the scheme.
A member of the Committee, Hon Uzoma Nkem-Abonta (PDP-Abia), who objected to the operations of a foreign company that failed to avail the Committee with information on a transaction in Nigerian Crude, said the Consortium needs to be further scrutinised regarding the DSDP arrangement.
The lawmaker berated Vitol SA over the letter sent to the Committee requesting that, the National Assembly should write their request through the Swiss Embassy to get the records.
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Citing a similar request by the Senate, he explained that the Company’s communication went through the same channel and all the required information was provided to the Senate Committee.
However, angered by the response, Hon Nkem-Abonta said the partners in Nigeria, particularly Mansel should be invited to explain.
After the interactions with the representatives of the Consortium, Hon. Abdullahi directed the Clerk to write a letter inviting the Managing Director of Mansel Commercial Company Ltd to appear before the Committee next week Tuesday.
Other oil companies that appeared before the Committee during the investigative hearing include; Virgin Forest Energy Ltd, Pinnacle Oil and Gas Ltd and others.
Meanwhile, A-Z Petroleum Products Ltd has urged the House of Representatives to help recover an alleged outstanding debt of N30 billion subsidy differential from the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
The Head of Business Development, Mr Hafford Udochukwu, explained that said the company had in 2015 bought 12 cargos containing 245.89 million litres of PMS, 26.27 million litres in 2017 and 26.64 million litres in 2018.
“We have not been paid since 2017, because of that we stopped trading in PMS. We are being owed over N30 billion by the government for subsidy differentials and because of that, we have stopped trading.
“We have not been trading on PMS; we are kind of handicapped, severally we have written to the ministry, they have paid others, but we have not been paid.
“In fact, we went to court two months ago. We are asking the committee to prevail on the Ministry of Finance so that they can pay us the outstanding,’’ he said.
Mr Udochukwu said that the company has over four thousand employees on its payroll which they have been sustaining all these years, but it was becoming difficult.
The committee decried the development, saying that it was unacceptable as a lot of money, running into trillions, had been appropriated for the sub-head.
Similarly, the lawmakers directed the management of Oando Plc to provide details of crude lifting, importation of refined products and other information as regards the DSDP arrangement for further legislative scrutiny.
Hon. Abdullahi, therefore, directed the management of Virgin Forest Energy and Oando to appear before the committee on Monday, August 15, 2022, with proof of any payment made and other relevant documents on the quantity of PMS involved.
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