PDP flays presidency over alleged N25b NNPC contract scam, others

• Firm launches gas projects to boost power generation

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the alleged complicity of the Muhammadu Buhari presidency in the reported N25 billion fraudulent contracts awarded through the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has earned the nation an embarrassment of being labeled a ‘kleptocracy’ in the international arena.

In a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP challenged Buhari to immediately speak out on the allegation to avert further damage to Nigeria’s image.“Nigerians wonder how President Buhari and his handlers felt when they read the new book by a former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, and former US Intelligence Community Expert on Nigeria, Matthew Page, where our dear nation was described as ‘a kleptocracy’, because of the humongous corruption, festering unchecked, in the Buhari administration,” the opposition said.

According to PDP, the new book has further vindicated its stance that corruption has skyrocketed under President Buhari, as also allegedly emphasized in reports by other international bodies.The party listed bodies as the United States Department of State, Amnesty International (AI) and Transparency International (TI), which was said to have recently declared that corruption had escalated in Nigeria under President Buhari, despite his nebulous anti-graft claims.

“The book also aligns with our party’s position that Buhari’s incompetence, utterances and failure to live up to expectation as the father and chief security officer of the nation are directly responsible for the escalated acrimony, bloodletting and killings in various parts of our country in the last three years.

“Indeed, as captured by the book, the impunity and constitutional violations by Buhari administration has done a lot of harm against our nation, while his failure to address the endemic corruption in his administration, particularly in the petroleum sector, where he presides as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, is hurting the image of our nation,” the statement added.

The PDP further stated that Buhari failed to address the alleged stealing of N1.1 trillion worth of crude oil as well as the sleazy oil subsidy deals by interests close to his administration.

Meanwhile, the NNPC has authorised seven Critical Gas Development Projects (7CGDP) to deliver about 3.4 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day (bscfd) to bridge the foreseen medium term supply gap by 2020 on an accelerated basis. The 7CGDP is part of the gas development strategy designed by the corporation to leverage the full potential of gas to meet the target of generating at least 15 gigawatts (GW) of electricity by 2020.

Speaking in Lagos yesterday during the launch of the 7CGDP project, the Group Managing Director of the corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru, enthused that the projects would not only bridge the projected shortfall in supply upon completion, but would signal the beginning of the process of closing demand-supply gap in the domestic gas market.He said NNPC had engaged two world class project management consultants, namely DeltaAfrik/Worley Parson and Crestech/Penspen who will work with NPDC and NNPC JV Partners and other stakeholders to achieve set project deliverables.