The Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Senator Tayo Alasoadura has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, and the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru.

Why it matters:

• Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu had written a memo to President Muhammadu Buhari, alleging that the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru approved contracts to the tune of $25bn without the approval of the corporation’s board.
• In the memo, Kachikwu also accused Baru of insubordination and sidelining the board in important decisions.
• The President subsequently invited Kachikwu to a meeting, after which he refused to speak to journalists.

What he said:

While speaking on ‘Sunday Politics’, a live programme on Channels TV, the senator said;

• Baru cannot continue to run the daily activities of the NNPC, while investigation is being conducted.
• He said action should have been taken already to ensure records have not been tampered with.
• He added that Kachikwu should also be suspended pending completion of investigations.
• The Senator advised the President to step down as oil minister and appoint a replacement who would report to him every week.

Alasoadura said, “I believe so; especially the man who is doing the day-to-day running of the organisation. In order not to hinder or hamper that investigation, because records will be needed and even from the date of the leakage of that letter, I think action should have been taken to ensure that nothing will be missing when investigations start

“So, I think the two of them should be asked to step aside and when investigation is over, whoever is culpable will go and whoever is not culpable, will continue with his duties.”

He added, “Judging from the many problems plaguing our country today, I believe Mr. President should devote more time to other things and let an independent person run the petroleum resources ministry who will then report to him twice or once a week.’’

• The Senator added that firms who received the contracts will be invited by the senate.

He added, “We are probing them because we want to get to the root of this matter. If you are doing an investigation, even those who have not been mentioned may have to be invited, but as of today, these are the people that we think should be invited and from there, we may need to invite many more organisations as the probe continues.”

Azeez