Nigeria: NNPC denies sponsoring moves to remove Saraki

The Management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has distanced the national oil company and its Group Managing Director, Maikanti Baru, from the ongoing political tango in the National Assembly and the trending reports in some section of the media insinuating that the corporation’s helmsman had doled out funds to effect the impeachment of Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

The corporation in a terse statement issued by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu, described the report as the handiwork of mischief makers seeking to drag the NNPC and its GMD into a purely political affair totally different from its mandate as the national oil company with fiduciary responsibilities to the government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The NNPC emphasised that the report is not only false but also an affront on the verifiable reforms in the operations of the corporation under the remit of Mr Baru which has witnessed irreversible strides in the area of transparency leading to the sustained publication of NNPC monthly operations and financial records.

The statement added that it is mere fiction and outright ‘’tales by moonlight’’ for anybody to insinuate that Mr Baru or anybody else could just take a dip into the Corporation’s till and dole out the volume of funds being portrayed in that phantom report for political purpose.

The corporation called on all well-meaning members of the public and oil and gas industry stakeholders to discountenance the said story noting that the management of the NNPC remains committed to its statutory role and responsibility to the entire federation.