The Senate has resolved to investigate the concession of Port Harcourt Refinery to the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) and Ocean and Oil Development Partners Limited (OANDO) for repair, maintenance and operations after a motion moved by Sen. Sabo Mohammed (APC: Jigawa) who raised alarm over alleged illegalities in the concession deal granted by the Ministry of Petroleum to the above mentioned oil companies.
Leading the debate on the motion titled “Non Transparent Transaction relating to the planned Concession of the Port Harcourt Refinery to AGIP and OANDO by the Ministry of Petroleum” at its plenary session of Tuesday, May 30th 2017, Sen. Mohammed lauded the Federal Government’s resolve to increase the refining capacity for local production and consumption of petroleum product. However, he had expressed concern over the Ministry’s lack of transparency in meeting the Federal Government’s objectives to end fuel importation by 2019 drawing attention to its violations of extant provisions on public procurement in the planned concession.
Sen. Mohammed went further to explain that the best and acceptable practice in such dealing was to select partners through an open and competitive bidding process conducted by the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), which was ironically excluded from the exercise. He also described that any exercise without due process was “illegal” and emphasized that it would lead to an undesirable outcome on the part of the Federal Government.
The Senate also mandated the Ministry to suspend all processes and financial transactions on the planned concession pending the outcome of its investigations. Prior to the Senate’s intervention, the official signing for the concession of the refinery had been scheduled for July 2017.
At the end of the day’s plenary, Senate President, Sen. Bukola Saraki (APC: Kwara) announced the composition of the Ad-hoc Committee responsible for conducting the investigation on the planned concession and it comprises of the Chairman, Sen. Abubakar Kyari (APC: Borno), Sen. Dino Melaye (APC: Kogi), Sen. Duro Faseyi (PDP: Ekiti); Sen. Matthew Urhoghide (APC: Edo); Sen. Abdulaziz Nyako (APC: Adamawa); Sen. Sabo Mohammed (APC: Jigawa) and Sen. Benjamin Uwajumogu (APC: Imo) as Members of the Committee.
