INTERVIEW: My party, APC, was wrong on NNPC swap arrangement – Lawmaker

“Let me state it very clearly, that I am a member of the APC and I believe in the ideals of the party.”

The opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, recently issued a statement criticising the handling of a swap deal between the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and two companies, Taleveras and Aiteo.

The two companies are involved in the crude oil for petrol swap the NNPC does for the 445,000 barrels daily crude oil it is allotted.

The APC in a statement by its spokesperson, Lai Mohammed, alleged underhand dealing in the transaction in which the two companies presented the highest bid of $2.85 billion for two oil blocks Shell is divesting from, beating many other major players in the oil industry, despite being less than five years in business.

The party also requested the House of Representatives to investigate the matter.

The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Abdulmumin Jibrin, however, disagrees with the party.

Mr. Jibrin, a member of the APC, stated his view in this interview with PREMIUM TIMES.

Although, an APC member, Mr. Jibrin said the information his party relied on was not accurate.

#Excerpts:
QUESTION: What is your view on the statement issued by your party, the APC, recently, in which it suspected foul play in the swap deal entered between two companies, Taleveras and Aiteo, and the NNPC?
I asked because the party requested the House of Representatives to investigate the deal?

ANSWER: First of all, let me state it very clearly, that I am a member of the APC and I believe in the ideals of the party.
I am also a loyal party man, and I believe that the party is supreme. I have utmost respect for the leadership of the party, and we will continue to do what our party asked us to do.

We are all stakeholders in our own little way and one way or the other; we can all contribute to issue and also advise the party where appropriate.

If the party had consulted some of us, particularly, myself, who chairs the Finance Committee in the House,

I would have also advised the party on how to go about this issue and I would have also shared with the party, the information I have at my disposal as regards some of these issues that the party raised. P

erhaps, the approach the party would have adopted might have been different.

The second aspect of it is that these are not normal times in the House, under normal circumstances, parties all over the world give advice or directives and also share some of these information with their members in the parliament.

But, today, the circumstances in the House of Representatives are not normal. There are a lot of issues and crises of trust between the various political parties in the House.

We started very strongly, but the House is now very much divided.

We want to work and there are a lot of issues to deal, but then you have to be united to be able to deal with such issues.

So when a party identifies such issues and come out to direct its members to do certain things, it becomes suspicious at the level of the House.

For instance, I chair the Finance Committee, but it is not made up of just APC members, so the moment PDP members in the committee hear that our party has given directives to do A or B, it becomes difficult to do your work.

So we try to make the party understand that this approach is counterproductive and I believe it will do us good if we try to find a way to moderate it and make it easier for us at the level of the House to do the work that we are expected to do.

QUESTION: Are you saying there is difference between information at your disposal and what the party is alleging in its statement?

ANSWER: Absolutely, specifically on the issue of the SWAP; we had lots of petitions since I came on board as chairman of the Finance Committee.

Many of those issues are facts and we have spoken out about them. But many others are also not true especially with the way they are being portrayed in the public.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of challenges in the oil and gas sector.

If you read some of our reports, you will see some of the issues we raised.

But on the issue of SWAP, most of the issues were exaggerated.

We have tried severally to look at the template and all matters related to the swap and it really did not look like the way it is being portrayed in the eyes of the public.

#NATIONAL-NEWS

INTERVIEW: My party, APC, was wrong on NNPC swap arrangement – Lawmaker