The House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) Wednesday concluded plans to reopen investigation into the acquisition of OVH Energy, and the complaints from NNPC Retail staff, revealing that the House had rejected a report of an earlier investigation into the matter, necessitating the fresh move.
The committee while announcing that it will also be investigating the bottlenecks associated with obtaining crude by local and modular refineries, and why local refiners should travel to Switzerland rather than obtaining crude locally, said the huge investments into the Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of the nation’s major refineries and why the exercise has not yielded the desired results leading to plan to sell them will form part of the probe.
Speaking at a news conference, Chairman of the committee, Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, said it was disturbing that after the hype that greeted the return of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries to production status, they had to shut down again.
“We are not out to protect anybody. If anybody is found to have been engaged in corrupt activities, the law should be allowed to take its course,” he said.
He added that the committee will also investigate the issue of the incorporation of Artisanal Miners into the petroleum refining value chain.
Another investigation by the committee, he said is the “alleged abandonment of the Biomas Ethane project as well as allegation and counter allegation over the continued importation of fuel and protection of local refiners.”
He said the committee resolved to dismiss the petition asking for the dissolution of the NMDPRA because the PIA confers the appointing powers on the president, adding that, “we cannot go back to the old order where every government fires people anyhow.”