…says group is fake, not registered with CAC
By Hassan Zaggi
The Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria have called on the United State (US) government to disregard and jettison a letter written to them by a group known as -The Concerned Citizens on Economic Reform Nigeria (CCERN).
At a press conference in Abuja, Monday, the CSOs described the group as fake and non-existent as, according to them, it is not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and has no known address.
The CSOs, therefore, accuse the group of impersonating it as CCERN is not known by the coalition.
The Coalition further distance itself from any attempt to tarnish the image of the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari.
“As NGOs, we do not subscribe to blackmail of the NNPCL GCEO, Mele Kyari and the CEO of Matrix Energy, Abdulkabir Adisa Aliu and will not sit back and watch people impersonate organizations we have built credibly for years in order to make us look like enemies of a well-meaning Nigeria state.
“Anyone who has an axe to grind with NNPCL and its management as well as the Matrix Energy Group should be bold to use their registered NGO as well as address and not ours.
“The United States Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) should disregard the petition submitted by the impersonators as it’s not authored by any of us who are former occupants of the address in the non-existing NGO,” the Coalition said.
The CSOs further insisted that: “We find it distasteful to be used by any group of persons or companies fighting for their own interests, and will be proceeding to submit a letter of withdrawal to the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control, through its United States, Embassy in Abuja on this issue that is almost eroding our integrity, credibility and reputation.”
The coalition was represented at the press conference by Comrade Splendour Agbonkpolor (Convener of Initiative for Leadership and Economic Watch); Chief Dominic Ogakwu (Convener of Civil Society Group for Good Governance); Comrade Jacob Okpanachi (Convener of Social, Political, Economic, Educational and Environmental Rights Initiative (SPEEERI) and Comrade Victor Itsede (Convener of Restore Nigeria Initiative).
The Coalition recalled that recently, the CCERN wrote a letter to the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), asking them to investigate the NNPCL and its CEO, Mele Kyari, for allegedly violating sanctions on Russian crude oil.
While vehemently denouncing the ‘fake’ group, the Coalition said: “Last week, we were flooded with calls from all sectors of Nigeria following a petition to the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) through its United States, Embassy in Abuja, by one NGO self-styled as ‘The Concerned Citizens on Economic Reform Nigeria’, signed by two persons namely Comrade Tijani Ibrahim as Convener and Amb. Fatima Abubakar as Secretary.
“The petition titled ‘Persons of interest in the violation of the coalition-agreed price cap on Russian crude’ was against the GCEO of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, Mr Mele Kyari and the Chief Executive Officer of Matrix Energy group, Abdulkabir Adisa Aliu.
“The various calls to us from Nigerians centered on the fact that the office address listed on the group letterhead belongs to us and the name used by the group was also twisted to look like one of our own. The name of the convener also happens to be assumed to be one of us since we have such a name in our coalition.
“Gentlemen, we have gathered you here to denounce the letter written to the US government and to state categorically clear that we were impersonated by those who wrote it.
“For the records, the NGO who wrote it in disguise of one of us is not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. Secondly, the two phone numbers used in their letterhead do not exist anywhere but created out of their memories.”
