Oil Swap Deal: NNPC Denies Arrest, Detention Of Officials By EFCC, DSS

NNPC-TowersThe Nigerian National Petroleum Coporation, NNPC, has said the invitation of some of its officials by relevant security agencies probing the crude oil swap deals was normal.

In the last four weeks, it was reported that operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Department of State Services (DSS), have been asking questions and inviting some officials of the NNPC to shed more light on the swap crude oil-for-refined-products-exchange programme and Offshore Processing Agreement (OPA).

In a statement by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, the NNPC noted that “the invitation of the officials is nothing unusual as NNPC regularly interfaces with other government agencies to provide information on relevant activities of the Corporation”.

Mr. Alegbe described the report of its officials’ arrest as “mischievous” and “falsehoods concocted to spruce up an otherwise baseless story to deliberately misinform the public and cast the Corporation in unflattering colours”.

The statement further frowned at the report which, it says, creates the impression that NNPC officials and indeed the Corporation may have been indicted for some criminal act or wrongdoing.

“We, therefore, wish to state in most unequivocal terms that the NNPC officials named in the said publication are scheduled and delegated management staff of the Corporation who only carried out their legitimate official assignments within the NNPC and were only invited to shed light on same by the law enforcement agencies.

“None of the NNPC officials was arrested or detained by the EFCC or the DSS in connection with investigation into the crude swap programme and the offshore processing agreement and none of the NNPC officials has had his international passport seized by any of the law enforcement agencies mentioned in connection with the investigation”, the statement added.

1 COMMENT

  1. Sahara Reporters claimed that “police harassment” was occurring at the hands of the DSS, so it is possible that something to this effect has happened. Although since the NNPC knows more of what is happening to its own employees than journalists, I think the reality of the situation is far less dramatic than the story suggested.