Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Senate has threatened to sack some leaders of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited over intricacies involving the maintenance projects of local refineries.
The Senate noted that from 2010 to date, over N12 trillion has been spent on Turnaround Maintenance (TAM), adding that it had records of over $592 million, €4.8 million, and £3.4 million spent between 2010 to date on TAM, yet none of the refineries was working.
The ad hoc committee of the upper chamber of the parliament investigating the various turnaround maintenance projects of Nigerian refineries gave the directive on Wednesday during an interactive session with NNPCL management and other executives of the oil sector.
Some of the heads of the affected agencies invited could not attend and sent representatives to the investigative hearing.
The chairman of the ad hoc committee, Mr Isa Jibrin, noted that so much had been heard on the turnaround and so much had been spent on operational materials on the refineries that were not working.
He said that they want to know the solutions to all the leakages, as there are a lot of them.
“We will ask for refund and dismissal of all the chief executives involved in the turnaround maintenance,” the lawmaker said.
Mr Jibrin said that for weeks, they had been asking for documents, which had not been given by the oil companies, a development that created suspicion.
“We sent them an invitation more than two weeks ago requesting documents and the documents have not been released after two weeks. So, we want the chief executives to be present.
“More worrisome is between 2010 and 2020, the sum of N4.8tn was said to have been spent as operational expenses. How do you incur operational expenses that have to do with the purchase of raw materials and similar expenses on factories that are moribund? How do we come about operational expenses? We need to know.
“These are issues that Nigerians want to know; they want solutions to all these leakages. We know they are leakages. We know and we will not hesitate to escalate it to the highest possible level, including the possibility of refund and outright dismissal of some of the heads of some of these agencies and possibly go to jail,” he said.
Also speaking, Mr Yahaya Abdullahi said that the NNPC Limited and management of other agencies, who came to represent their bosses, should be sent back to tell their chief executives that they should appear in person.
Another senator, Mr Sumaila Kawu said that the invitees knew the modus operandi of the civil service, adding, “We are not in the Senate for personal functions. We are representing the entire legislature. You are in the civil service, we know how you are operating.
“We are in a very serious business. In the end, you will be at the receiving end. Nigerians are not satisfied with what you are doing and you will be at the receiving end.”
