Explain why Oando got accelerated approval in AGIP/Eni deal, Atiku tells FG

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has asked the Federal Government to explain why Oando Plc received accelerated approval to buy the onshore assets of AGIP and ENI while other transactions such as the Shell/Renaissance deal and the Mobil/Seplat continue to suffer delays.

He also criticised the Bola Tinubu administration for allegedly implementing a sham subsidy regime, as revealed in the financial statement recently released by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

A statement by Atiku’s special assistant on Communications, Phrank Shaibu, lamented that despite earlier claims of removing petrol subsidies, facts on the ground suggest that subsidies have even increased since the beginning of the Tinubu administration.

“Tinubu visited the FMDQ in New York, visited Qatar, visited France where he made claims about removing petrol subsidies. Obviously, this is not a man who is serious about attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). More worrisome is that he is not even brave enough to admit that subsidy is being paid. The NNPCL admits that N7.8 trillion is owed to the national oil company by the Nigerian government.

“IMF estimates that subsidy payments this year will constitute 3% of GDP, which is about $7.5 billion. This will be about N11.8 trillion. Yet, petrol scarcity continues to linger while the Tinubu administration continues to frustrate the Dangote Refinery and even its own NNPCL facilities. Obviously, the subsidy regime has become an even wider conduit pipe through which monies for funding the 2027 election will come from,” Atiku said.

The former Vice President insisted on his allegation that Oando was being given undue and preferential treatment in the oil and gas sector to the detriment of more competent investors.

He also criticised the House of Representatives for failing to take proper action on the NNPCL, which has now gone ahead to “mortgage the country’s national oil assets to vested interests.”

Atiku said, “Within just eight months, the Nigerian Upstream Production Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) approved a deal which saw the divestment of ENI/AGIP onshore assets to Oando. Within that same period, Nigeria controversially withdrew all litigation against Shell/ENI in the OPL 245 scandal in what has been described as a quid pro quo.

“The statement continued: ‘However, the attempt by SEPLAT to buy Mobil’s onshore assets has continued to stall for the last three years, even as the consent letter remains on Tinubu’s table. The deal between Renaissance and Shell continues to stall. In fact, the only deal that has fully scaled through so far is the one involving Oando. We now know why it got accelerated approval.’

“Ideally, democracy ought to be government of the people, for the people, and by the people. But democracy in Nigeria has become the government of Tinubu, by Tinubu, and for Tinubu and his family members.”

Atiku added, “In July 2023, the House of Representatives, following the adoption of a motion moved by Miriam Onuoha, directed NNPC Ltd to suspend the acquisition of OVH assets pending an investigation by its committee.

“The House ad-hoc committee requested the NNPC Ltd to furnish it with information about registration documents/history from CAC for OVH, Nueoil, and NNPC Retail Limited (NRL), Board Resolution of NNPC Ltd on purchase of OVH, Audited Financial Statement and Management Accounts from 2015 to date of OVH, Nueoil, NRL, and NNPC Ltd, and the payroll from 2015 to date for NRL and OVH; Board Resolution of NRL/CHQ for movement of head office to Lagos and evidence of Tax Payments for NRL and OVH from 2015 to date.

“The NNPC ignored all these and went ahead to transfer its ownership and properties in its retail arm to OVH, thereby mortgaging the future of Nigerians.

“Despite the rot in the oil sector, the head of the NNPC, the head of the NUPRC, and the head of the NMDPRA continue to keep their jobs. This is clear evidence that they are fulfilling the mandate given to them by Tinubu.”

Atiku pointed out that the NNPC lied in its vacuous response to their statement last week, as it is on record that the Kyari-led management appointed Huub Stoksman, a former Chief Executive Officer of OVH Energy, as Managing Director of NNPC Retail, and Mumuni Dangazau, the former Chief Operating Officer of OVH Energy, as his Special Adviser Downstream, long before the consummation of the incestuous marriage of the entities.

Atiku also lambasted the Tinubu administration for the rise in human rights abuses.

The Waziri Adamawa said Tinubu, who rode to power on exaggerated claims of being a freedom fighter, had turned against the people by allowing the Department of State Services (DSS), police, and even the military to abuse the rights of citizens without any consequences.

He said that in some instances, citizens were arrested in a Gestapo manner without the knowledge of their relatives, who go about looking for them for several weeks.

The former Vice President said the most affected since Tinubu took office have been journalists whose only crime is reporting the news and exposing government indiscretion.

He argued that the Cyber Crime Prevention Act 2015 had become a tool with which officials in the Tinubu administration were abducting citizens, while the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) had transmuted into the defunct SARS.

Atiku added, “The dangerous trend of enforced disappearances has become a national embarrassment for a country that claims to be practising democracy. On May 1, 2024, Daniel Ojukwu of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism went missing and was presumed abducted by kidnappers until he was later discovered to be in police custody on the orders of IGP Kayode Egbetokun.

“Ojukwu’s crime was that he exposed the corruption of a government official who currently serves in Tinubu’s administration. On July 23, the DSS arrested one Aliyu Sanusi in Sama Road of Sokoto, the state capital for printing and distributing materials ahead of the #EndBadGovernanceProtest.

According to Atiku, “Even the arrest and release of the former BBC Pidgin Editor and current West Africa Regional Editor of The Conversation, Adejuwon Soyinka, clearly shows a pattern, the objective of which is to intimidate journalists for speaking truth to this government.”

Atiku advised Tinubu to take cases of human rights abuses seriously or Nigeria would remain at risk of being slammed with sanctions which would prevent western powers from selling weapons, a development he argues could undermine Nigeria’s ability to tackle insecurity.

“Amnesty International still has a pending petition before the Foreign Committee of the US Congress against the sale of weapons to Nigeria due to human rights concerns in line with the Leahy Law. Tinubu would do well to curb these cases of rights abuses by law enforcement authorities who all report to him as commander-in-chief,” the former Vice President said.