Minister, NCDMB ex-boss differ on $500m ‘wasteful’ spending

Minister of Petroleum (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri and former Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Local Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote, are at loggerheads over wasteful spending of about $500 million.

The duo, in a separate press release yesterday, were in a blame game over a move to investigate some projects worth about $500 million, which were allegedly handled by the NCDMB, even as the minister noted that the funds were wasted on questionable projects.

The minister, in a release signed by his Personal Assistant on Media, Nneamaka Okafor, mentioned that Wabote is unable to account for two refineries.
One of them, Atlantic Refinery, was according to Lokpobiri, supposed to be
built in Wabote’s hometown, while the other was designed for Brass in Bayelsa.

Lokpobiri insisted that he was standing with the allegations against the celebrated executive, who left office after completing his tenure.

“The minister in his capacity as chairman of the Governing Council stands by his statement at The Petroleum Club’s quarterly event in Lagos, and as journalists, I welcome you to visit the places mentioned to verify the allegations for yourself.

“Investigations are ongoing and the truth will surely come to light and money belonging to the generality of Nigerians will be recovered for Nigerians,” the statement said.

Wabote on the other hand said the narrative being peddled by the minister was false, even as he accused him of a series of wrongdoing, including trying to indict the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and requesting that he increase the NCDMB budget by N30 billion for the office of the minister.

“I said to him that the maximum NCDMB budget has ever gotten to in the past is circa N80 billion for all our activities, adding N30 billion will be too much for his office and I was not going to do it. I ask stakeholders to review the NCDMB budget from 2016 to 2023 and also look at what got approved in 2024,” his statement stated.

He noted that the minister already has the full briefing and breakdown of projects being handled by the agency and had visited most as parts of familiarisation visits.

Wabote also observed that it is “false” for the minister to assert that 90 per cent of the Intervention Fund managed by BOI is not performing.