Diezani To Answer Case On Oil Blocks' Sale
Nigerians may not have heard the last of embattled former petroleum minister, Dieani Madueke-Allison, as the House of Representatives has asked her to respond to allegations of discrepancies surrounding the allocation of seven Oil Mining Leases (OMLs).
The lawmakers, it was gathered, rejected a move by an Ad hoc committee of the house to exonerate Allison-Madueke, and others of any wrongdoing in the allocation of the oil blocks.
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After carrying out an investigation into alleged shady deals involving the former minister and other corporate entities such as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Ltd, and Septa Energy Ltd, in respect to the farm-out or allocation of OMLs 4, 26, 30, 34, 38, 41 and 42, the committee sought an escape route for the OPEC president.
But, according to a report by Leadership, a request by Ajibola Muraina, chairman of the Ad hoc committe, for the consideration of the said report moved at plenary yesterday was outrightly rejected by the house, due in part to a recommendation of the committee for a clean bill of health to all those involved in the allocation of the OMLs.
In one of its recommendations to the house, the committee stated: "that a clean bill of health be given to all the parties involved in this transaction as the entire transaction conformed to all the applicable laws" while also suggesting that operators in the oil industry should deliberately encourage transparency in their operations in order to avoid unnecessary suspicions.
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Allison-Madueke will now appear before the house to explain how the sale of the oil blocks were carried out and other issues affecting the oil blocks before the closure of the 7th assembly.
Reports had surfaced after president Muhammadu Buhari's victory at the March 28 presidential election, that the former minister was denied asylum by six different countries in her bid to avoid probe over anomalies in the oil sector during her reign as its head.
Source: Legit.ng
