$24bn Oil Deals: They Are Ganging Up and Lying Against Me - Diezani Cries Out

Embattled Former Minister for Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke has cried out that the former Group Managing Directors of the NNPC and some other people are trying to set her up.

Former Minister for Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has fired back at her former group managing directors, GMDs, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, saying they ganged up to fabricate lies against her person.

 

She called the revelations made by the group managing directors to the ongoing legislative probe of the oil swap and OPA deals as total fallacy.

 

Alison-Madueke said she never approved any $24 billion for Renewal of the Crude Oil/Refined Products Exchange Agreement without contracts.

 

In a statement released yesterday by her spokesman, Mr. Clem Aguiyi, she denied claims and suggestions that she granted an “extension” instead of ‘Approval for the Renewal of Contracts’ for the swap arrangements. She called statements made against her person as “fabricated tissues of lies deviously concocted to sustain the escalating evil narratives against her person.” 

 

Alison-Madueke revealed that she gave the following approvals for renewal of contract: one-year term each for both Messrs Trafigura Beheer BV, and Messrs Societe Ivoirienne de Raffinage (SIR), in August 2010; two-year term in August 2011 for the same companies, and one-year term to NNPC subsidiary, Duke Oil, in January 2011.

 

She added: “Two other approvals were consequently sought by the GMD, NNPC, the first of these on August 29, 2014, seeking to ratify all three aforementioned approvals, which had apparently variously expired during the course of 2013.” 

 

She said she approved all three “in view of the criticality of the situation. Expiry of those terms was put at December 31, 2014, following assurances to the minister that the contractual obligations of the parties to NNPC had, in fact, been fully met, despite the regrettable lapse in renewal time."

 

Madueke further said: “NNPC strongly recommended and outlined the benefits of the OPA over the swaps and put forward the case for migration from the OPA and crude exchange (SWAP) contracts to OPAs fully. 

“NNPC posited that the ‘experienced benefits of the OPA to the Federation’ would be much greater. All approvals were due process-driven and were only given by the Minister, following formal statutory written requests, which contained the technical basis for the renewal and were sent to the Minister by the GMD-NNPC, as is the normal practice. 

 

“NNPC had clearly requested for the approval of the Minister for ‘Renewal of the Crude Oil – Refined Products Exchange Agreement’ and ‘Renewal of Offshore Processing Agreement’ on all the various occasions outlined earlier in this press release.” 

 

“Whereas, it is the Minister’s responsibility to either give or refuse ‘approval’, it was not within her purview as Minister to draft, initiate or conclude the processes of signing the final contracts. 

“It is the statutory responsibility of NNPC to ensure that all technical areas are duly covered and all requisite due process parameters are duly implemented.”

 

It would be recalled that Mr. Austin Oniwon, who was GMD, NNPC, from May 17, 2010 to June 12, 2012, and Mr. Andrew Yakubu, June 12, 2012, to August 2, 2014, alleged last week before legislators that Alison-Madueke had granted them approvals for contracts extension. 

source: tori