The relative peace in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, which enabled Nigeria to produce about 2 million barrels of crude oil per day in recent months is seriously being threatened, following the cancellation of three oil blocks won by indigenes of the region in the 2007 bid round by the Federal Government.
The three oil blocks had for eight years been stalled by litigation until it was resolved in 2015.
It was learnt that President Muhammadu Buhari was proded into the revocations of the oil blocks by the leadership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC).
A source within the NNPC management confided in Daily Sun that top NNPC officials had secretly advised the president to revoke the oil blocks, namely, Oil Prospecting Licences (OPLs) 2001, 2002 and 2003 by hoarding vital information and distorting facts presented to him.
It was also learnt that to ensure the conspiracy succeeded, officials of the two government oil companies blacked out the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, from the move. Also left out were the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, as well as the leadership of the Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the industry regulator.
In a memo dated December 20, 2016, obtained by Daily Sun, the NNPC top brass claimed repeatedly that the oil blocks, which are covered under Oil Mining Licence 13 were recovered from the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and “inadvertently revoked”, saying that they were “back-converted to green field OPL and resized into OPLs 2001, 2002 and 2003 and offered under the 2007 Licensing Round.”
The memo impressed on Buhari that the oil blocks belong to the NPDC. It, however, failed to disclose to the President that the NPDC, which is an NNPC subsidiary, bidded for one of the blocks but lost because its bid was very low.
The NNPC chief “is using his high office to corner, through the back door, oil blocks won by Niger Delta investors in a competitive and transparent bidding process,” said a commercial lawyer who has been following the case closely.
The lawyer who did not want his name in print said, “he deliberately did not tell the president, who is a fair minded person, how the three OPLs came up for grabs in the 2007 bid round.”
In 2013 when the NPDC asked the then Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke, to transfer ownership of the three oil blocks to it, she referred the request to the DPR, which promptly alerted her of the grave legal implications.
Noting that OML 13 no longer existed in the eyes of the law, the petroleum industry regulator advised her thus: “You do not give what you do not have.” Recalled a former aide of the erstwhile minister who was involved in the matter: “She dropped the request like a hot potato because of the tremendous legal costs and because the owners are from the Niger Delta who won in a competitive licensing round. She recognised immediately the hot political consequences of not allowing justice to prevail in this matter.”
Meanwhile, tension is mounting in the Niger Delta over the oil block cancellations, as the promoters of the three companies are determined to go all the way to retrieve their oil blocks.
The party faulted the decision of the electoral umpire in a statement on Saturday by the spokesperson for its Presidential Campaign Council, Mr Festus Keyamo.
Keyamo, who is also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said they received the news of INEC’s decision with “great disappointment and disillusionment”.
“We condemn and deprecate this tardiness of the electoral umpire in the strongest terms possible,” he said.
“President Muhammadu Buhari had since cooperated fully with INEC by ensuring everything it demanded to conduct free and fair elections were promptly made available to it.”
The APC campaign council spokesman noted that the postponement was a disappointment to his party and their supporters across the country.
He, therefore, warned INEC against bowing to the purported pressure of the opposition which he said was not ready for the elections.
According to Keyamo, credible demographic projections have predicted a defeat of the opposition party and it needs the breather to halt President Muhammadu Buhari’s momentum.
“We do hope that INEC will remain neutral and impartial in this process as the rumour mill is agog with the suggestion that this postponement has been orchestrated in collusion with the main opposition,” he alleged.
The council spokesman added, “It is in the light of the above that we wish to appeal to Nigerians and our supporters to be patient, calm and resolute despite this temporary setback.
“Let us not give anyone … the opportunity to plunge this nation into a crisis, which is what they earnestly desire.”
INEC had postponed the general elections by a week, less than five hours to the start of the polls.
INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, announced the decision at a short press briefing held at 2:44 am on Saturday morning in Abuja.
According to him, the Presidential and National Assembly elections, initially scheduled for today, February 16, will now hold on February 23, while the governorship and state houses of assembly elections will take place on March 9.
The Independent National Electoral Commission in Nigeria (INEC) on Friday night announced a shift in the general elections dates to February 23 and March 9 respectively.
The new schedule was announced by the Chairman of the commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, early Saturday morning after an emergency meeting with security officials, election observers and other political stakeholders.
He said the postponement was due to logistic and operational reasons.
According to him, the new dates for the elections are 23 February and 9 March for the Presidential and National Assembly, as well as the governorship, state houses of assembly and FCT Area Council elections respectively.
It would be recalled that the Presidential/National Assembly Election was initially billed for today February 16 while the Governorship/States Assemblies election was billed for Saturday, March 2.
According to Prof. Yakubu, “the commission came to the conclusion that proceeding with the election is no longer feasible.”
He added that “This was a difficult decision for the commission to take but necessary” for the success of the elections.
The National Assembly had in October last year approved the sum of N242.245bn for this year’s elections.
Out of the amount, INEC got N189bn, while the police was allocated N27.3bn. The DSS got N10.2bn; NSA’s office, N9.4bn; N2.628bn for Nigerian Immigration Service, and N3.573bn for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) has issued an arrest warrant against Walter Onnoghen, suspended chief justice of Nigeria.
At its resumed trial on Wednesday, the tribunal ordered the nation’s security agencies to arrest Onnoghen after he failed to appear before it.
Aliyu Umar, lead prosecution counsel for the federal government, had asked the tribunal to order Onnoghen’s arrest over his refusal to appear before it.
The suspended CJN has not been in court for at least five times since his trial started.
The federal government is prosecuting him for alleged false assets declaration.
Umar, while making an oral application for the arrest warrant, kicked against Onnoghen’s continued absence.
He said both the administration of criminal justice act and the practice direction of the CCT mandates a defendant to be present in court before any proceedings can be conducted in respect of a pending charge.
Adegboyega Awomolo, lead defense counsel, however, kicked against the application.
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