The Nigerian Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami has indicated his readiness to provide relevant information on the alleged sale of 48 million barrels of crude Iil amounting to over $2.4 billion and crude oil export to global destinations from 2014 to date.
The Minister expressed his readiness through a letter sent to the Ad-hoc Committee chaired by Hon. Mark Gbillah during the resumed investigative hearing on Thursday.
While acknowledging receipt of the letter, Hon. Gbillah said: “Today we are in receipt of a letter from the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice who is affirming his determination to respect the doctrine of separation of powers and to support our extant laws. He has indicated that they are trying to put together a comprehensive response to what we raised. While we appreciate the Attorney General’s response we would like to indicate that it came a lot later than we expected and it came without the response that we referred to. So, we will appreciate if the Attorney General and Honourable Minister provide these responses and appear before the Committee next Thursday. So, let’s give him the window to appear before the Committee.”
He noted that the Committee has not received any submission or response from the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed.
“We want to call on the honourable Minister of Finance to show respect for the separation of powers as enshrined in our Constitution and respond promptly to the request of the Committee so that we can get to the bottom of our investigation,” Hon. Gbillah said.
The lawmakers during the resumed investigative hearing quizzed management staff of some oil companies involved in the lifting and sales of crude oil to global destinations in furtherance of the investigation into the alleged sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil.
Some of the companies who appeared before the Ad-hoc Committee chaired by Hon. Mark Gbillah uncovered unsigned and unstamped documents submitted by Equinor Nigeria Energy Company.
Other companies quizzed by the Ad-hoc Committee include Millennium Oil and Gas Company, SAPETRO, PANAMA, Moni Pulo, among others.
The lawmakers also quizzed some Deposit Money Banks operating in the country including Fidelity, Union Bank and Ecobank Plc, respectively.
Breach of Extant laws
Speaking during the investigative hearing into the activities of Equinor with respect to OML 129, the committee frowned at the inability of the company to effectively operate the asset as well as the breach of extant laws, thereby resulting in the loss of revenue to the Federation.
However, Equinor’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr Charles Nwoko denied the allegation. He argued that Shell is the operator in the pre-unit phase and they are working with Shell on that.
Mr Nwoko affirmed that the Gas Flare Commercialisation roadmap is part of what the Federal Government is progressing on. He noted that the initiative was aimed at putting an end to gas flaring.
The lawmaker while scrutinizing the document submitted by the Equinor representative, expressed concern over some of the documents that were not signed nor stamped.
To this end, the Committee resolved to request information bothering on Equinor’s annual obligation and compliance with the statutory requirements.
Hon. Gbillah also requested documents such as proof of Pre-shipment certificates, Q88 form, names and statements of accounts where proceeds of crude oil sold are deposited, stock certificate, copies of procurement details, details of cargoes, date of crude lifting, quantity, destination, and type of crude lifted, among others, which are to be submitted by next week Wednesday.
Emmanuel Ukoh
