The Senate ad hoc Committee, established to investigate contracts for the rehabilitation of the nation’s four refineries, has threatened to pursue the dismissal and trial of senior officials from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), its subsidiaries, and other pertinent government agencies associated with the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of the refineries.
Chairman of the Committee, Senator Isa Jibrin issued the threat on Wednesday following the failure of the senior executives of the NNPCL and other relevant agencies to appear before it.
Checks revealed that the Senate adhoc Committee had invited the chief executive officers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and their subsidiaries.
The lawmaker who were peeved by the failure of the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari and others to appear before it asked their representatives to exit the Senate room.
Senator Jibrin said: “We can not start this investigative hearing without the heads of agencies. Let them go to report to their principals that we have declined to listen to them if they fail to turn up we know what to do.”
Senator Sumaila Kawu said the Senate was determined to get to the root of public fund spent on the moribund refineries.
He said:” We are working according to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We are not in the Senate because of our names but because of the constitution. We are practicing constitutional representation and it is very clear.
“So much money has been spent on the turn around maintenance of the four refineries. From 2012 till date over N12tr has been spent based on our records. We also have over $592m, 4.8m Euros and 3.4m pounds spent between 2010 till date on the Turn Around Maintenance yet none of this refineries is working.
“More worrisome is the fact that between 2010 and 2020 the sum of N4.8tr was said to have been spent on operational expenses. How do you incure operational expenses with purchase of raw materials and others on facilities that are moribund, how you come about the operational expenses?
“We need to know Nigerians want to know. They want solutions to all these leakages.”
Nigerian Tribune checks revealed that the adhoc Committee was set up last October, following a motion titled “Urgent Need to investigate the various Turnaround Maintenance (TAM) Projects of Nigerian Refineries to uncover waste and prevent further squandering of scarce public resources.” It was sponsored by Senator Karimi Sunday Steve, representing Kogi West.
The Senate, recalling several TAM projects executed by the federal government, declared that the state-owned refineries in Nigeria have been a significant drain on public finances, depriving the citizens of the benefits of being an oil-producing nation.
It puts the operating costs of the refineries between 2010 and 2020 at N4.8 trillion.
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