By Our Reporter
A Civil Society Organization under the umbrella of the Movement for Anti-Corruption, Integrity, and Transparency Initiative, has condemned the recent outburst by former President Olusegun Obasanjo against state-owned refineries and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
The group made their position known in a statement jointly signed by its National President, Comrade Goodway Jackson, and Secretary General, Comrade Mohammed Kuda, and made available to journalists in Abuja, on Sunday.
The group insisted that the outburst by the former president was not out of patriotism, but from an age-long anger and grudge against the NNPCL.
“To many, former President Obasanjo’s recent outburst on State Refineries may not, after all, be because he means well for the well-being of the nation’s refineries but due to an age-long grudge he holds against NNPCL soon after he left office as president,” it further said.
The group quoted Femi Falana’ reaction to the former President’s outbursts where he said: “It is due to the personal vendetta he holds against the State Refineries because after he (Obasanjo) left office, late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who took over from him, reversed the sale of the Port Harcourt Refinery to a consortium, having seen that its sale was shrouded in controversy.”
The group further said: “According to Falana, a 51 percent stake in the Port Harcourt Refinery was sold to Bluestar Oil for $561 million, and, another 51 percent of Kaduna Refinery was also sold to Bluestar Oil for $160 million on May 28, 2007.
“Many didn’t know until Falana’s revelation that Bluestar Oil was a consortium of three domestic companies, including Dangote Oil, Zenon Oil, and Transcorp., even before the not cleared deal, President Obasanjo had acquired large shares in Transcorp through ‘blind trust’, meaning that will as well be part of the owners of the Refineries if Late Yar’ Adua had not reversed its sales and since then Obasanjo having lost out being a part of the owners of the State Refineries has been bitter and has refused to see anything good in the management of the State Refineries and the oil sector.”
Zenon Oil is owned by Femi Otedola, a long-standing friend and ally of Aliko Dangote, who owns Dangote refinery.
The group therefore said that: “We have made our findings from Oil industry experts, they posit that since the ex-president lost out in his quest to be part of the owners of the refineries, he has refused to see anything good in the management of the state-owned refineries, no matter how good that thing is, and he will always go to any length to denigrate any positive outlook of the state refineries as well any success being recorded within the oil sector, due to the bitterness of not being an owner.”
