Reps probe Alison-Madueke, Shell over N59tn deal

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke

The House of Representatives on Thursday asked its ad-hoc committee to investigate the alleged N59tn shady oil deal involving the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited and officials of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Corporation.

The deal is said to include the “secret and arbitrary farm-out” of Oil Mining Leases 4, 26, 30, 34, 38, 41 and 42 to two firms, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Limited and Septa Energy Limited, without following due process.

A member of the House from Anambra State, Mr. Victor Ogene, who raised the issue under matters of urgent public importance, recalled that the deal was the reason protesters from oil producing communities in Delta State marched on the National Assembly on April 25, 2013.

Ogene alleged that Alison-Madueke, SPDC and NPDC officials worked in collaboration with the firms to farm out the marginal oil fields.

He said “a colossal sum of $380bn or N59tn, and $15.72tn worth of gas assets were alleged to be at stake in the shady deal.”

Ogene informed the House that the deal breached Sections 3(1), (2) and 5 of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Act (No. 2), by denying indigenous operators the right of first refusal to bid for the leases.

Part of the motion read, “It was disclosed that $800m would have been earned by the Nigerian government in place of the N50m received had there been an open and competitive bidding required by Section 16 of the Public Procurement Act, 2007.

“The alleged resultant part-sum of $750m in the entire racket or fraud scheme became possible through a mischievous process of hinging the transaction on the ‘Strategic Alliance Agreement’, an action which was deliberately designed to circumvent due process and transparency in contravention of Section 3 of the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative Act, 2005.”

The House did not debate the motion before endorsing it for investigation.

The Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr. Emeka Ihedioha, who presided over Thursday’s sitting, observed that debating it could make lawmakers to pass judgments ahead of the investigation.

“We have to guard against debating this motion so that comments are not made that will prejudice the outcome of the investigation,” Ihedioha said.

The investigation will be conducted within four weeks.

PUNCH