NNPCL Lacks Power To Sell Nigeria’s Refineries, Dangote Should Help Trace $18Billion Rehabilitation Funds –Falana
NNPCL Lacks Power To Sell Nigeria’s Refineries, Dangote Should Help Trace $18Billion Rehabilitation Funds –Falana
He accused the NNPCL of deceiving Nigerians by claiming the refineries had been rehabilitated, despite “security reports that the rehabilitation was a hoax.”
Prominent human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has declared that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) lacks the legal authority to sell the country’s public refineries.
He also called for urgent investigations into what he described as the “criminal diversion” of $2.9 billion earmarked for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries.
In a strongly worded press statement released Sunday in his capacity as Chair of the Alliance on Surviving Covid-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), Falana said the refineries are not the property of the NNPCL or the Federal Government alone, but of the entire federation.
“It is pertinent to point out that the public refineries cannot be sold by the NNPCL Management for the following reasons,” Falana wrote. “In the first place, the public refineries are neither owned by the NNPCL nor the Federal Government. They are owned by the Government of the Federation i.e. the Federal Government, the 36 state governments and the 774 local governments in the country by virtue of section 44(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended.”
He accused the NNPCL of deceiving Nigerians by claiming the refineries had been rehabilitated, despite “security reports that the rehabilitation was a hoax.”
Falana added that “the Management of the NNPCL lied that the refineries had been rehabilitated,” and said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had commenced an investigation into the matter.
He also linked comments made by Dangote Group President Aliko Dangote and NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Bayo Ojulari, suggesting that the refineries may never function again, to a broader agenda to sell them off—an action Falana insists is unconstitutional.
“Last Thursday, the President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, stated that the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries might never resume operations, even after about $18bn had been spent on their turnaround,” he said.
“Barely 24 hours later, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPCL, Mr. Bayo Ojulari, echoed similar concerns, revealing that the company was considering selling off the refineries as years of rehabilitation had failed to yield meaningful results due to the facilities’ outdated status.”
Giving more reasons why the refineries cannot be sold by the NNPCL management, Falana said, “Secondly, the planned sale of the refineries by the NNPCL Management should not be allowed as it will frustrate the ongoing investigation of the criminal diversion of the sum of $2.9 billion paid to two foreign contractors for the rehabilitation of the refineries.”
“Thirdly, the nation’s refineries are not among the public enterprises listed for privatisation in the Commercialisation and Privatisation Act. Without an amendment of the Act, the sale of the four refineries by the NNPCL Management or the Federal Government will be set aside,” the statement said.
Falana also warned that such a move would violate constitutional provisions.
“Selling the nation’s refineries to a few individuals or a group will violate section 16(2)(c) of the Constitution which provides that ‘the economic system is not operated in such a manner as to permit the concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange in the hands of few individuals or of a group,’” the ASCAB Chair said.
Reacting to Dangote’s statement that the Federal Government has spent about $18 billion on the refineries, Falana said: “Since the information is at his disposal, Mr. Dangote should be prepared to assist the EFCC in the ongoing probe of the fraudulent rehabilitation of the public refineries. The recovery of the bulk of $18 billion from the failed refinery contracts will be sufficient to construct a new refinery.”
He also criticised the NNPCL’s silence over discrepancies in the government’s equity stake in Dangote Refinery, noting that in 2021 the Federal Executive Council approved $2.76 billion for a 20% stake, while Dangote recently claimed that only 7.2% was actually acquired.
“Since Mr. Dangote has disclosed that the NNPCL acquired only 7.2% shares in the company, there has been no explanation from the NNPCL Management. The EFCC should equally investigate the diversion of the fund approved for the 20% shares in the Dangote Refinery,” Falana said.
Concluding the statement, Falana urged the NNPCL to stop “shielding the two foreign contractors that have breached the terms of the rehabilitation contracts,” and called on the EFCC to act.
“The EFCC should give the two contractors an ultimatum to either complete the rehabilitation of the four refineries or refund the contract sum of $2.9 billion,” he said.
