By YANGE IKYAA
A civil society group known as Integrity Youth Alliance has condemned what it called the smear campaign against the unprecedented performance of the group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari.
In a statement releases Monday in Abuja, the national coordinator of the Alliance, Kelvin Adegbenga, said that instead of saluting the efforts and performance of the NNPC management team under Kyari, some sponsored elements are busy dishing out unsubstantiated publications with no substance.
The group was responding to allegations by Point Blank News that there is an “orchestrated plot to loot $1.5 billion using the turnaround maintenance of the Port Harcourt Refinery by the group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari; the managing director, Port Harcourt Refinery, Ahmed Dikko; and some members of the Buhari cabal.
According to Adegbenga, “one of the platforms used for this hatchet job is, unfortunately, the Premium Times, which used to be credible. But lately the paper is fast losing focus and credibility.”
He further narrated that one solid evidence of this is the story on the sale of Slop Oil by the Port Harcourt Refinery, with the paper admitting its sloppiness by revealing that it initially thought the company that won the bid was not registered with the CAC, but that when Premium Times realized its blunder, it created a phantom company with a similar name and said it was the one that was not registered.
“Having failed in that concoction, the paper then screamed that the companies that came “First and second belong to the same Directors. How is owning more than one company in Nigeria a crime?,” he queried, while also saying for the fact that we have a former Chief of Staff, Late Abba Kyari; Super Cop DCP Abba Kyari and most outstanding NNPC GMD Mele Kolo Kyari having the same names doesn’t mean they are the same person, the Group said.”
The Alliance said that due diligence was carried out in the public and Italy’s Maire Tecnimont was awarded the $1.5 billion Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract after meeting all the requirements and approval by the NNPC Tenders Board and President Buhari in his capacity as the minister of petroleum and head of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
“The question we want to ask Point Blank News is have they visited the Port Harcourt Refinery to see that Maire Tecnimont is not carrying out the Engineering, Procurement and Construction?”
The group also insisted that with the caliber of organisation and agencies set up to monitor the rehabilitation which include Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), ministry of finance, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), the two labour unions in the oil and gas industry – Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), among others, there is no way ‘a huge chunk of the $1.5 billion meant for TAM of the Port Harcourt Refinery will go for the 2023 general elections.
On the allegation that Tecnimont is a “little known” Italian company, they affirmed that Tecnimont is an international leader in the field of plant engineering, rooted in the pioneering experience of Italian industrial technology, shaping the new frontiers of engineering innovation and construction of large scale projects worldwide.
Since 1927, as engineering center of Italy’s chemical and energy conglomerates, and then as independent brand since 1973, Tecnimont’s long experience in managing complexity is complemented with a flexible business model ready to quickly adapt to market evolvement.
“The Point Blank News team should have visited the refinery to monitor the rehabilitation that engaged over 3,000 employees with only 70 expatriates engaged instead of publishing a baseless hearsay.
The EPC contractors are already on site, mobilized fully and working with the NNPC project management group.”
Kyari is said to have walked the transparency and accountability talk by opening up the books of the NNPC the way no other management before his has done. The key accomplishments in this regard include the publication of the 2018, 2019 and 2020 audited financial statements of the corporation and its 19 subsidiaries to provide clarity on Joint Venture finances.
“It is not surprising that no other credible media organization published the empty allegations, as the Point Blank News and Premium Times are known for publications of unconfirmed news,” the statement concluded.
