*Wonders why Buhari kept sealed lips on the fraud
By Eze Chukwu
Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, has called on the anti-graft agencies to immediately probe alleged award of $3.7billion contract to rehabilitate dead refineries.
Frank in a statement in Abuja, strongly condemned the award of the said contract to rehabilitate the nation’s refineries as revealed by the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating the state of refineries in the country.
He described the amount of money spent on the contract as “unimaginable heist and brutal looting of the nation’s financial resources under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch” in a country where average Nigerians can no longer afford one meal per day.
He also condemned the refusal of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mr. Mele Kyari and other officials of the company “from appearing before a statutory committee of the National Assembly to explain why and how such colossal amount were earmarked to service a moribund company”.
He called on the EFCC and ICPC to wake up from their slumber by “arresting and prosecuting all those involved in the nauseating contract scandal”.
He insisted that the amount of money spent had either been “grossly mismanaged, outrightly stolen or about to be looted”.
He wondered why cases of mismanagement, corruption and abuse of office will continue to recur under the watch of General Buhari, a self-acclaimed anti-corruption czar and who was in 2018 conferred with the African Union’s Anti-corruption Award.
“Since 2015 till date, Buhari has been the substantive Minister of Petroleum and he cannot claim ignorance of the award of this bizarre contract.
“It is benumbing that despite revelation by a member of the House of Representatives that 95 per cent of oil production in Nigeria is being stolen, Buhari, who is in-charge as Minister of Petroleum has not deemed it necessary to go after the thieves or order anti-corruption agencies to go after the evil cartel stealing the nation’s crude oil.
“When will Buhari truly fight corruption in Nigeria? Will it be after he leaves office in May 2023?” he said.
He insisted that money being frivolous stolen by those in positions of authority in the name of maintaining apparently dead refineries and payment of subsidies since 2015 could have helped the country to build over three new modern refineries.
He said: “Today, Dangote is building a 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) oil refinery in Lekki at an estimated cost of $19billion. However, as at September 2013, it was estimated to cost about $9billion.
“Similarly, as at October 2013, Uganda announced that it plans to build a 60,000 barrels per day oil refinery at an estimated to cost $2.5billion.
