Reps Threaten to Arrest CBN Governor, Petroleum Minister, AGF Over Sale of Oil Blocs

Reps Threaten to Arrest CBN Governor, Petroleum Minister, AGF Over Sale of Oil Blocs

Members of the Federal House of Representatives on Friday threatened to issues warrants for the arrest of the Central Bank governor and the accountant-general of the federation. The threat was issued with respect to ongoing investigations into the sale of oil blocs to some international oil companies, the revenue from which were not properly remitted to the government.

CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele and the accountant-general, Ahmed Idris, are only two of many public officials the lawmakers identified as probably culpable in the allegedly fraudulent sale of oil prospecting licenses and oil mining leases.

Officials of the ministry of petroleum resources may also be dragged before the House of Representatives in coming weeks, over the issue.

Chairman of the House AdHoc Committee on OPLs/OMLs, Hon Gideon Gwani (PDP-Kaduna), while briefing newsmen on Friday in Abuja said the committee had discovered many anomalies in the award of oil blocs to international companies.

Punch reports that Gwani listed other issues being investigated by the committee to include the award of marginal fields and signature bonuses among others.

Gwani also said that no production activity took place in some oil blocs awarded to the IOCs over 30 years ago.

The lawmaker explained that there was evidence of the investment of about $26.2bn by the government, there was no evidence of payment of the signature bonus in respect of the investment.

“Our findings have shown that 1.4billion dollars may have been lost by the Federal Government on the OPLs/OMLs deal,’’ he said.

Gwani stressed that the officials would be arrested if thebMinistry of Petroleum Resources, CBN and AGF Office failed to provide evidence of payment of the signature bonuses on the sale of the oil blocs.

“It is also worth mentioning that in the course of the investigation, the committee discovered a lot of issues being investigated to arrive at a conclusion.

“Some of the discoveries include the award of oil blocs by persons other than those prescribed by the petroleum Act,” he said.