Senate summons Dangote Refinery and Others
The Nigerian Senate has invited 15 companies including Dangote Refinery, NIPCO Gas Limited, and NIPCO Plc to explain how they spent over N120 billion in intervention funds disbursed to them by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Senate in a memo to the companies, signed by Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe, Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas, and obtained by FrontView Africa on Tuesday, said the companies are beneficiaries of the disbursement from the Nigeria Gas Expansion Program (NGEP) Intervention Fund by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The invitation said they must appear on Thursday, November 30, at a meeting room in the National Assembly complex.
The memo read, “The following Companies who are Beneficiaries of the Disbursement from the Nigeria Gas Expansion Program (NGEP) Intervention Fund by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) are invited to an Investigative Hearing with the Senate Committee on Gas.
The list of companies includes:
- NIPCO GAS LTD – N25billion
- NIPCO PLC – N5billion
- HYDE ENERGY LTD – N2billion
- LEE ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION COMPANY – N15billion
- PINNACLE OIL AND GAS FZE – N10billion
- TRANSIT GAS LIMITED – N8billion
- AMALGAMATED OIL COMPANY NIG, LTD (AMOCON) – N5billion
- GAS NEXUS LTD – N10billion
- FIRST MODULAR GAS SYSTEMS LIMITED – N4.3billion
- NOVAGAS LIMITED – N1billion
- GREENVILLE LIQUIFIED NATURAL GAS COMPANY – N10billion
- AP LPG LIMITED – N8billion
- DANGOTE OIL REFINERY – N5billion
- DELTA STATE GOVERNMENT – N20billion
- MOB INTEGRATED SERVICES LIMITED – N2.5billion
“The invited Companies are required to appear with their Progress Reports stating the location of projects and the Current Status of the Projects. The meeting is scheduled as follows:
Date: Thursday, 30th November 2023;
Time: 2:00 pm;
Venue: Meeting Room 107, New Senate Building, National Assembly Complex, Abuja.
Accept the assurances of my highest regards.
In a recent related development, FrontView Africa had on November 23 reported that the Senate committee probing the rehabilitation of the country’s four refineries threatened to demand for dismissal and trial of senior officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, (NNPCL) and other relevant agencies for shunning its invitation.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Isa Jibrin, had issued a threat following the failure of the senior executives of the NNPCL and other agencies to appear before it.
The agencies, he said, were those involved in the Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM) projects of refineries.
Some of the agencies whose chief executive officers failed to turn up at the session but sent representatives included NNPCL; Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA); Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and others.
The senator noted that from 2010 till date, over N12 trillion had been spent on the rehabilitation of the refineries, yet none of them was functional.
He said, “We will ask for a refund and dismissal of all the chief executives involved in the Turn Around Maintenance.”
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 for documents and the documents have not been released after two weeks. So, we want the chief executives to be present.
“More worrisome is that between 2010 and 2020, the sum of N4.8 trillion 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. Whether you accept it or not they are leakages and they are all forms of compromise within your various establishments.
“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 had said.
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