Dangote’s claim: Ezekwesili demands probe as Kyari denies owning foreign plant

A former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has called for an independent audit of why the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited capped its investment in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery at 7.2 per cent instead of the planned 20 per cent.

This was as the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, denied owning a blending plant outside Nigeria on Tuesday.

The comments were coming amid the controversies surrounding the Dangote refinery.

Ezekwesili said she had earlier decided not to speak on the Dangote refinery-NNPC saga while reacting to the matter through her official X handle.

“However, as more and more information filtered out from both parties, we can reasonably conclude that something seriously murky has gone on and needs to be fully unravelled for public accountability. And urgently, too,” she stated.

The former minister added, “How can a project that by all definition attained the stature of a ‘national interest project’ be marred in this depth of embarrassing controversy that is playing out in the full glare of the local and international investing community?

“Did the Nigerian government not tell us it borrowed $3.3bn from Afriexim-Bank to take a stake in the Dangote refinery?”

Ezekwesili recalled that during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, she used to tell the NNPC that it could not continue to run as a federation on its own.

“When we were in government, I often told the NNPC leadership that they cannot carry on as though there is a ‘Federal Republic of the NNPC’ just because they think of themselves as ‘the goose that lays the golden egg’.

“The opacity of the NNPC was the reason we took great delight in designing the multi-stakeholders Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency International in those early 2000s that I pioneered as Chairperson.

“We went above global minimum voluntary standards of transparency requirements by entrenching ours in an Act that established NEITI as the transparency regulator of the oil and minerals sector,” she explained.

She called on President Bola Tinubu “to immediately use the instrumentality of NEITI to launch an independent audit of the Dangote refinery-NNPC transaction to offer the public the true state of play.”

The PUNCH recalls that the President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, recently revealed that NNPC’s investment in his refinery was 7.2 per cent and not 20 per cent, as speculated.

“The agreement was actually 20 per cent which we had with NNPC, and they did not pay the balance of the money up till last year; then we gave them another extension up till June (2024), and they said that they would remain where they have already paid, which is 7.2 per cent. So NNPC owns only 7.2 per cent, not 20 per cent.” Dangote stated.

Kyari denies plant

Meanwhile, the NNPC’s boss said on Tuesday that he does not own a blending plant outside Nigeria, reacting to claims by Dangote that some officials of the national oil company own blending plants in Malta.

Amid the crisis surrounding his $20bn refinery, Dangote had said, “Some of the terminals, some of the NNPC people, and some traders have opened blending plants somewhere off Malta. We all know these areas. We know what they are doing.”

Reacting to this in a post on his X handle, Kyari said he had been inundated with calls from family members and friends, asking if he truly owns a blending plant in Malta.

The NNPC helmsman said he does not own or operate any business directly or by proxy anywhere in the world, except for a local mini-agric venture.

He also said he is not aware of any employee of the NNPC that owns or operates a blending plant in Malta or anywhere else in the world.

“I am inundated by enquiries from family members, friends, and associates on the public declaration by the President of Dangote Group that some NNPC workers have established a blending plant in Malta, thereby impeding procurements from local production of petroleum products.

“To clarify the allegations regarding the blending plant, I do not own or operate any business directly or by proxy anywhere in the world except for a local mini-agric venture, neither am I aware of any employee of the NNPC that owns or operates a blending plant in Malta or anywhere else in the world.

“A blending plant in Malta or any part of the world does not influence NNPC’s business operations and strategic actions.”

The NNPC boss threatened to sanction any official of the company involved in such acts if they truly existed.

“For further assurance, our compliance sanction grid shall apply to any NNPC employee who is established to be involved in doing so if availed, and I strongly recommend that such individuals be declared public and be made known to relevant government security agencies for necessary actions because of the grave implications for national energy security,” he stated.

Dangote has been speaking up following allegations by the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, that the diesel produced by the Dangote refinery had higher sulphur content than imported ones, a claim Dangote described as an attempt to demarket his refinery.

Ahmed had also said the country would continue to import fuel to stop the Dangote monopoly.