The Ad-hoc Committee investigating the alleged fraudulent acquisition of OVH by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) is set to present its report to the House on resumption from the two-month recess.
Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, Hon. Hassan Nalaraba who spoke after the oversight function/facility tour of OVH Energy assets acquired by NNPCL in Lagos State, assured that the Committee’s report will reflect its findings and recommendations.
Some of the assets inspected by the Ad-hoc Committee include: Storage facilities located at Apapa Terminal 1, Ikeja Aviation Terminal, Parking Store/Warehouse located in Apapa, ASPM Jetty at Admiralty Channel, among others.
Some of the assets seen by the lawmakers are: 6 million litre for AGO, 23 million litre storage for PMS, ATK, among others, Storage Tanks, former OVH head office, 17 million litre Lubricant Blending Kettle located within the Lubricant Plant, Jetty, amongst others.
While conducting the lawmakers round the facilities, Mr. Dipo Makinde who informed the lawmakers that NNPC Retail has Drum Production Plant in Kaduna State, reiterated the resolve towards gaining more from the value chain, with the expectation of growing dividends up to 80 percent that will go into the Federation Account.
While responding to questions on the use of Oando brand seen during the facility tour, Mr. Makinde assured the Ad-hoc Committee that NNPC Retail is gradually drawing down on the usage of Oando brand.
Mr. Makinde who disclosed that the Plants have operational licences, assured that necessary measures have been put in place to ensure safety of all the equipment within the Plants.
According to NNPC Retail’s General Manager for Depot and Jetty, Mr. Moses Irene, NNPCL jointly owned Terminals with Total Energies in Lagos, two in Port Harcourt and One, River.
According to the NNPC Retail officials, since the ASPM Jetty facility can handle 1 million litres per hour against about 500,000 litres on the average, reduce the time that marketers wasted awaiting vessels to come into the area.
“At the conception of the facility, we were saving over N250 million per month as demurrage.”
In his remarks, Hon. Hassan Nalaraba explained that the Petitioner alleged that OVH was fraudulently acquired by NNPC Limited and some of the assets which NNPC Limited claimed to have do not belong to them, adding that some of the assets were even leased before the acquisition or after the acquisition.
While giving update on the facility tour of all the OVH assets located within Lagos State, Hon. Nalaraba said: “the House deemed it fit to set up the Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the wrong processes and in the cause of our investigation, we invited Group Executive Officer, Mele Kyari. He (Kyari) appeared before the Committee, he briefed the Committee on the process of the acquisition.
“We also invited the regulatory agencies which is Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority, he came and he also gave us his own brief and from the two briefs we received so far, we are looking at the briefs and we know very well that both of them from their submissions, there was no wrong doing in the process of acquisition.
“It’s in that regard that we now came to Lagos to see those assets that are owned by OVH and from what we’ve seen today, we’ve gone to the Aviation Terminal, we’ve gone to their Lubricant, we’ve also gone to ASPM Jetty.
“We saw how important those assets are, and how important those assets could add value to the general operations of the NNPC Retail outlet.
“Furthermore, what we equally discovered was the operational process of the OVH and NNPC,” he noted.
He assured that the Ad-hoc Committee “will definitely go back to Abuja, we would sit down and examine what they presented to us and what we’ve seen is in consonant with what they (Petitioner). Honestly, we are going to write our report and present it to the House, when the House reconvenes next week.
“And from what we have seen and what the GMD said about the profit made in the first quarter, NNPC made about $18.4 million. We saw the process where those profits come from and it’s a good one for Nigeria. And I think it’s going to add more value and more revenue to Nigeria and then the downstream sector.
“So, we are here, we’ve investigated, we’ve oversighted most of the assets and we’ll go back, write our report and submit it to the House, when it reconvenes,” he assured.
In his assessment of the facilities, Hon. Nalaraba said: “honestly, we’ve seen a lot, we’ve seen those assets practically and those assets actually belong to NNPC Retail.”
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