Atiku Demands Explanation for Oando’s Accelerated Approval in Eni Deal Amid Other Stalled Transactions

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, on Sunday, asked the federal government to explain why Oando Plc owned by President Bola Tinubu‘s nephew, Wale Tinubu, got an accelerated approval to buy the onshore assets of Italian oil giant, Eni, ahead of other transactions such as the Shell/Renaissance deal and the Mobil/Seplat transaction.

In a statement by the Special Assistant on Public Communication to Atiku, Phrank Shaibu, the former vice-president doubled down 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.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election also knocked the House of Representatives for failing to take proper action on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) which has now gone ahead to “mortgage the country’s national oil assets to vested interests.

“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.

“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,” the former vice president said.

He also slammed the Tinubu administration for implementing what he described as a sham subsidy regime as revealed in the financial statement recently released by the NNPC.

He said: “Tinubu visited the FMDQ in New York, visited Qatar, visited France where he told lies 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 NNPC admits that N7.8 trillion is owed to the national oil company by the Nigerian government.

“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that subsidy payments this year will constitute 3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is about $7.5 billion. This will be about N11.8 trillion. 

“Yet, the petrol scarcity continues to linger while the Tinubu administration continues to frustrate the Dangote Refinery and even its own NNPC facilities. 

“Obviously, the subsidy regime has become an even wider conduit through which monies for funding the 2027 election will come from.”

Atiku stated that democracy ought to be the government of the people, for the people, and by the people, but maintained that democracy in Nigeria had become the government of Tinubu, by Tinubu, and for Tinubu and his family members.

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

Despite this order and several others, Atiku argued that the NNPC ignored 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 Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) continue to keep their jobs. This is clear evidence that they are fulfilling the mandate given to them by Tinubu,” Atiku added.

Furthermore, Atiku pointed out that the NNPC lied in its response to his statement last week, as it is on record that the Mele Kyari-led management appointed Huub Stoksman, a former Chief Executive Officer of OVH Energy, as Managing Director of NNPC Retail.

Also, he pointed out that  Mumuni Dangazau, the former Chief Operating Officer of OVH Energy, became his Special Adviser Downstream, long before the consummation of what he said was the incestuous marriage of the entities. 

In a related development, Atiku also lambasted the Tinubu administration for the rise in human rights abuses.

The Waziri Adamawa said Tinubu, who rode to national prominence over exaggerated claims of being a freedom fighter, had turned against the people by allowing the Department of State Service (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.

He said the most affected since Tinubu took office had 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 was abducting citizens while the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) had transmuted into the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

“The dangerous trend of enforced disappearances has become a national embarrassment for a country which claims to be practicing democracy. 

“On May 1, 2024, Daniel Ojukwu of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) 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.

“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, which objective is to intimidate journalists for speaking truth to this government.

“Now, the police have arrested Bristol Tamunobiefiri, who owns the PIDOM Nigeria blog on X, formerly Twitter. After detaining him for over two weeks, he was granted an administrative bail, which will be impossible to meet,” he said.

Chuks Okocha and Emmanuel Addeh

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