FORMER Vice President Atiku Abubakar has questioned President Bola Tinubu’s interest in why Oando Plc seemingly got an accelerated approval for the purchase of onshore assets of AGIP and ENI while other transactions such as the Shell/Renaissance deal and the Mobil/Seplat continue to suffer delays.
Atiku’s request was contained in a statement on Sunday, August 25 by his spokesman, Paul Ibe on Sunday, noting that Oando is owned by the incumbent president’s nephew.
He also slammed President Bola Tinubu’s administration for implementing what he described as “a sham subsidy regime”, as revealed in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s (NNPCL) 2023 financial statement recently released.
“Tinubu visited the FMDQ in New York, visited Qatar, visited France where he told lies about removing petrol subsidies. This is not a man who is serious about attracting FDI (foreign direct investment).
“More worrisome is that he is not even brave enough to admit that subsidy is being paid. The NNPCL admits that N7.8tn is owed to the national oil company by the Nigerian government,” Atiku said.
According to the former vice president, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that subsidy payments this year will constitute three per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), amounting to about $7.5 billion.
He said this would 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 NNPCL facilities.
He asserted that the subsidy regime has become an even wider conduit pipe through which monies for funding the 2027 election will come.
Atiku maintained that Oando was being given undue and preferential treatment in the oil and gas sector to the detriment of more competent investors.
He also knocked the House of Representatives for failing to take proper action on the NNPCL which he said had 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. The only deal that has fully scaled through so far is the one involving Oando. We now know why it got accelerated approval,” Atiku said.
He noted that democracy ought to be a government of the people, for the people, and by the people, but in Nigeria, it has become “the government of Tinubu, by Tinubu, and for Tinubu and his family members.”
“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,” he recalled.
Atiku said that despite this, the NNPC went ahead to transfer its ownership and properties in its retail arm to OVH, thereby mortgaging the future of Nigerians.
On Thursday, August 22, Oando announced the successful completion of the acquisition of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) from the Italian oil major, Eni, at $783 million.
In September 2023, Oando disclosed that the Italian firm agreed to divest its onshore Nigerian assets to the company.