Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, has lambasted a controversial online newspaper, Sahara Reporters over a report against Group Chief Executive Officer of The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, Mele Kyari; Chief Financial Officer, Umar Ajiya, and some other top officials of the company.
Recall that Sahara Reporters, had exclusively reported how Kyari and Ajiya allegedly paid themselves billions of Naira as gratuities while still in active service.
Although the NNPCL management reacted to the allegations, the IPMAN countered the online newspaper, accusing it of being sponsored by some disgruntled Nigerians to destabilize the country.
In a statement by IPMAN Chairman, Northern region, Alhaji Bashir Ahmad Dan-Mallam in Kano on Friday, the association and Arewa Oil and Gas Marketers Association cautioned Sahara Reporters against dragging NNPCL into its shady deals for its paymasters.
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According to Dan-Mallam, since the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA in 2021 the management of NNPCL “has worked tirelessly to give implement to the letter the following core objectives of the PIA as stipulated in chapter 1 of the act;
(b) establish a framework for the creation of a commercially oriented and profit-driven national petroleum company ; (c) promote transparency, good governance and accountability in the administration of the petroleum resources of Nigeria ; (d) foster a business environment conducive for petroleum operations ; and (e) deepen local content practice in Nigeria oil and gas industry.
“As a result we the operators and NNPCL major stakeholders can testify that company has carried us along every inch of the journey and has strength supply and distribution channels of the oil and gas industry and worked with all of us in it’s reform journey.
“Today supply has consistently steadied, prices have guaranteed fair returns for our members, they have ensured we get intervention products whenever natural events or unforeseen circumstances causes glitches in the supply and distribution channels etc.
“NNPCL has ensured transparency in it’s reform journey and the whole country is tirelessly informed of any milestones and today we are happy that the new govt is inheriting a brand new national oil company branded for the future ahead,” Dan-Mallam said in the statement.
These disgruntled elements have moved from the political scene to the economic sphere to bring to fruit their nefarious intentions of disrupting a peaceful transition of power come may 29.
The Chairman noted that the NNPCL had beyond all expectations, concluded the implementation of its transition to a viable commercial entity as stipulated by the PIA 2021.
He pointed out that Sahara Reporters and its paymasters “are not happy that the giant strides of the new NNPCL and want to use it to bring the country to the brink of crisis by spreading wicked and malicious lies and disinformation.”
“We call on the DSS to note these campaign of calumny as part of the grand plan of those with intent on a power grab haven lost in the polls.
“Be that as it may, the DSS will not tolerate a situation where persons and/or groups take laws into their hands and champion anarchy. Those peddling fake news, hate speech and all forms of false narratives as basis to ignite violence or pit the people against the present or incoming administrations, at the Federal, State and Parliamentary levels, should stop forthwith.
“The above quotation from our patriotic and ever vigilant DSS sums up the recent fake news peddled by sahara reporters when they attacked the management of NNPC limited as a part of the larger grand design to attack the govt from all angles and scuttle the inevitable handover of power to a duly elected administration on may 29.
“We the members of Arewa oil and gas marketers association have noted with disgust the attempt by sahara reporters on behalf of their co-conspirators to drag NNPCL in to they and their paymasters grand scheme of causing confusing and alarm in our thriving industry that has been stabilised by the commitment and hardwork of NNPL management.
“The harbingers of instability and peddlers of fake news have concocted another false narrative calculated to instil fear and discredit the tireless efforts of the govt and nnpc management to stabilise the petroleum industry as the bedrock of Nigerian economy,” he added.
