Say probe mere witch hunt
Challenges senators to probe OPL 246, 321, others
An Ijaw-led group, South-south Youth Leaders’ Forum has threatened to storm the Nigerian Senate “in our numbers” if the senators fail to suspend a probe of the controversial Malabu Oil and Gas Limited.
The Senate recently mandated its committee on petroleum (upstream) to re-open a probe of Malabu’s involvement in the sale of Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 245.
Malabu Oil and Gas, which is owned by Dan Etete, an Ijaw chief and former petroleum resources minister, pocketed about half of the $1.1 billion Shell and ENi paid the Nigerian government for the oil bloc.
In a statement today, the South-south group said the senators’ decision to re-open a probe of Etete’s company, smacked of a witch hunt.
The statement was signed by chairman of the group, Amb. Amachree Odiedim.
The group described OPL 245 as the most probed issue by the National Assembly, and wondered aloud if the federal lawmakers had nothing else to occupy their time.
“Let us at this point make it very clear that we shall occupy the Senate in our numbers if any attempt is made to revisit the issue of Malabu’s OPL 245, especially because they have an ulterior motive,” the group warned.
Since the senators appear to be spoiling for probes to launch, held the group, “they should consider the most lucrative and controversial oil block in the country OPL 246.”
The group alleged that OPL 246 is owned by the trio of the Abachas, General T.Y. Danjuma, and the Chaguoris.
The group tasked the senators to explain why they turned a blind eye on OPL 246, but have been blowing hot on OPL 245.
“We wonder why Malabu alone has been in the news?” posed the group, claiming that the situation would have been different were Etete Hausa or Yoruba.
“W can no longer tolerate such broad day light marginalization any further. We are very confident that all these drama of a probe can only happen when a “minority” Ijaw man is involved, but can never and will never happen if the said OPL 245 was owned by a Northern or Westerner,” the group said.
The South-south group reminded that the House of Representatives had between 2002 and 2003, spent over 10 months probing Etete’s Malabu, and was followed by the Senate.
It further recalled that the same House re-opened the probe in 2011, only for the Senate to follow suit in 2013.
“We are tempted to ask: is Malabu’s OPL 245 the only Oil Block in Nigeria? Or is it a crime for an Ijaw man to own an Oil Block? Or are the Danjumas, the Abachas, the Chagouri Brothers, etc who own oil blocks better entitled than an Ijaw man?” the group quizzed.
South-south Youth Leaders challenged Otunba Oyewole Fasawe “to tell the world and indeed Nigerians how his PECOS Energy Limited got involved in OPL 245?”
The group claimed that PECOS was merely a front for former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his deputy, Atiku Abubakar.
The group claimed that hundreds or oil bloc owned by “persons who do not have creeks”, including OPL 323 and 321, and expressed surprise that only Etete’s was singled out for investigation.
“This Malabu’s OPL 245 will be the (last)straw that will break the camel’s back, if caution is not taken,” the group warned.