Alleged NNPC, World Bank Scam: Media Group Write President Tinubu, Calls For Judicial Enquiry

By Akinwale Kasali

Foremost Media Group, Journalists For Democratic Rights, JODER, has called on President Bola Tinubu to set up an independent Judicial Panel of Enquiry into the allegations of high level corruption in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Ltd, NNPCL, and the World Bank operations in Nigeria.

The pro-democracy group said the Judicial Panel of Enquiry to be set up by the President should  include legal luminaries like Femi Falana, Olisa Agbakoba, Prof Jibrin Ibrahim, and other credible Nigerians.

JODER in a statement signed by its Secretary, Akinwale Olayinka, said Nigerians need not just a Panel of Enquiry, but the one that would command public respect.

The group said corruption is at the heart of Nigeria’s underdevelopment and the root cause of violence and extremism that have taken foothold in many parts of the country.

In a letter sent to the President on Wednesday, JODER, asked the President to appreciate the weight of the illicit practices linked to the NNPC and the World Bank operations in Nigeria which further dips Nigeria’s image into the soak-away of global disrepute under the President’s watch.

The democratic rights group asked the President to give hope to local and international observers of the ugly trend by setting up a Judicial Enquiry that would investigate the series of criminal practices associated with the World Bank officials and the NNPC.

It stressed that the Minister for Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye had revealed that Nigerian World Bank officials take 40% from all loans obtained by Nigeria.

She also revealed that some members of the National Assembly do demand and receive bribe from loans collected on behalf of 200 million Nigerians while Minister(s) are entitled to 5% of the loan.

JODER said the World bank officials are both Nigerians and their European rogue cartels whose main motive is to keep Nigeria as a satellite state that will never develop, hiding under the pretences of false assistance and development partnership.

“On the scandal in the oil and gas sector, the Chairman, Dangote Refinery said some NNPC officials have set up refineries in Malta with a plot that would automatically stifle the prospect of oil and gas production and destroy indigenous growth of the industry at the homefront. The media group described the two revelations on the World Bank and the NNPC as the ‘biggest scam in African recent history.

“The first action we expect from President Tinubu is to suspend NNPC officials whose names have been associated with the scam. The NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari and the Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed should be suspended immediately. The Federal Government should also demand immediate suspension of the World Bank representative in Nigeria pending the outcome of the investigation”.

The group said the revelations by the Minister and Dangote have brutally shaken the faith of Nigerians beyond measure raising the fear that redemption is impossible.

“The President needs to give hope to a despairing population that seems to have resigned to hopelessness and frustration. These two issues of high level corruption must never be swept under the carpet. A probe is what is necessary for Nigeria to regain a bit of her totally lost reputation on the global map”, JODER said.

The Group further added that with these revelations, it shows clearly that World Bank loan is a big scam, a conscious plot to stunt Nigeria’s search for economic freedom.

“It shows the loans largely go into private pockets. Little wonder Nigerian Government Officials are desperate to seek loans all the time, which the National Assembly is always anxious to approve, but not for development but to largely oil the pockets of private individuals”.

JODER described the developments as ‘a human tragedy of unprecedented proportion.’