The House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation led by Hon. Ahmed Yerima (APC, Bauchi), has ordered the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to stop its planned privatisation of the nation’s refineries or joint investment ventures with some multinationals.
The committee gave the order yesterday in Abuja during an interactive session with the managements of the NNPC, led by the group executive director, Refineries, Mr Anibor Kragba, who represented the minister of state for petroleum resources and group managing director of the corporation, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, and the acting director-general, BPE, Mr Vincent Akpotarie, who also led the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) team, to discuss the planned privatisation of three refineries in the country.
The committee said the process was in breach of relevant laws.
Kragba had earlier told the committee that the NNPC was only sourcing for funds to enable the refineries operate effectively and had no powers to privatise any of its refineries, reiterating that they put up some publications in some national dailies, in a bid to attract investors.
