Former Vice President and the 2023 Presidential candidate of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has demanded explanation from the Federal Government on how Oando Plc owned by the President Bola Tinubu’s nephew, Wale Tinubu got an accelerated approval to buy the onshore assets of AGIP and ENI while other transactions such as the Shell/Renaissance deal and the Mobil/Seplat continue to suffer delays.
The need for explanation followed the controversy surrounding the acquisition of NNPC retail by Vitol and Helios Holding, (OVH) which was alleged to be a subsidiary of Oando.
In a statement signed by Phrank Shaibu, Atiku’s Special Assistant on Public Communication on Sunday, he alleged that Oando was being given undue and preferential treatment in the oil and gas sector to the detriment of more competent investors.
In his words: “Within just eight months, the Nigerian Upstream Production Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) approved a deal which saw the divestment of ENI/AGIP onshore assets to Oando. Within that same period, Nigeria controversially withdrew all litigation against Shell/ENI in the OPL 245 scandal in what has been described as a quid pro quo.
“However, the attempt by SEPLAT to buy Mobil’s onshore assets has continued to stall for the last three years even as the consent letter remains on Tinubu’s table. The deal between Renaissance and Shell continues to stall. In fact, the only deal that has fully scaled through so far is the one involving Oando. We now know why it got accelerated approval.
“Ideally, democracy ought to be government of the people, for the people, and by the people. But democracy in Nigeria has become the government of Tinubu, by Tinubu, and for Tinubu and his family members.”
Atiku also berated the House of Representatives for failing to take proper action on the NNPCL which according to him, has now gone ahead to “mortgage the country’s national oil assets to vested interests”.
He further alleged that the Bola Tinubu administration deceived Nigerians, claiming to have removed subsidy and implemented a sham subsidy regime while at the same time paying out subsidy as revealed in the financial statement recently released by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
“Tinubu visited the FMDQ in New York, visited Qatar, visited France where he told lies about removing petrol subsidies. Obviously, this is not a man who is serious about attracting FDI. More worrisome is that he is not even brave enough to admit that subsidy is being paid. The NNPCL admits that N7.8tn is owed to the national oil company by the Nigerian government.
“IMF estimates that subsidy payments this year will constitute 3% of GDP, which is about $7.5bn. This will be about N11.8tn. Yet, the petrol scarcity continues to linger while the Tinubu administration continues to frustrate the Dangote Refinery and even its own NNPCL facilities. “Obviously, the subsidy regime has become an even wider conduit pipe through which monies for funding the 2027 election will come from.”