The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Wednesday disowned a letter purportedly written by it to the Senate Committee on Finance as an independent corporation insulated from being summoned by any relevant committees of the National Assembly.
Disowning of the purported letter by NNPCL, coincides with the summoning of its Group Managing Director ( GMD) Mele Kyari, by Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) on Wednesday.
Chairman of the upper legislative chamber’s committee on Finance, Senator Olamilekan Adeola, had last Wednesday, during an interface with heads of various MDAs, said NNPCL wrote the Committee through its liaison officer in National Assembly (NASS) that it is now a limited liability company insulated from appearances before committees of NASS.
Senator Adeola at the interface, specifically told the NNPCL General Manager, Public Affairs, Garbadeen Muhammad that NNPC is 100 percent owned by the Federal government and it can be invited at any time to appear before the lawmakers for any explanation.
But Garbadeen Muhammad at the sideline of the appearance of NNPCL before the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) on Wednesday, told journalists that the alleged letter never emanated from the NNPCL.
“After the accusation on the purported letter, we carried out a thorough investigation on where such a letter came from and through whose authority but discovered that nothing of such was sent from NNPCL to any Committee of the National Assembly.
“We even probed further as regards the authenticity of the letter by taking our liaison officer at the National Assembly to Senator Adeola’s office where the Clerk of the Senate Committee on Finance changed the narrative from letter to telephone conversation.
“Even at that, we requested for the telephone number of the person who gave such information to the Clerk of the Senate Committee on Finance for required tracking of identity, but it was not given to us.
“The fact of the matter as it is now is that nobody from NNPCL wrote or called anybody in the National Assembly that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) , has insulated us from appearing before relevant committees of the National Assembly.
“NNPCL is at anytime ready to honour any invitation from committees of the National Assembly as regards its operations on Oil and Gas “, he said.
Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Petroleum ( Downstream), has summoned the Group General Manager of NNPCL, Mele Kyari to appear before it unfailingly on Tuesday next week by 2pm.
The Committee chaired by Senator Mohammad Sabo Nakudu, said the appearance of the GMD before it, will give it required information on steps being taken against oil theft, dwindling revenue, and the dilapidated state of the nation’s refineries.
The GMD was represented at the rescheduled meeting by the Group Executive Director of NNPCL, Adeyemi Adetunji.
