Nigerian Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has cleared his involvement in the controversial contracts awarded by the NNPC while he was acting President.
In a statement by Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media & Publicity, Osinbajo explained specifically that the approvals he granted to the NNPC were for financing arrangements.
Approached by reporters after the multi-billion Naira historic Bonny-Bodo road project, in Bonny, Rivers State, Osinbajo explained that the approvals he granted to the NNPC while he was Acting President were for financing arrangements for the Joint Ventures between the corporation and IOCs, and not approvals for contracts.
He stated: “These were financing loans. Of course, you know what the Joint Ventures are, with the lOCs, like Chevron, that had to procure. In some cases, NNPC and their Joint Venture partners have to secure loans and they need authorisation to secure those loans while the President was away. The law actually provides for those authorisations. So I did grant two of them and those were presidential approvals, but they are specifically for financing joint ventures and they are loans not contracts.”
He referred to his tweets earlier on Thursday, October 12, 2017, saying “In response to media inquiries on the NNPC Joint Venture financing arrangements, VP Osinbajo, as Acting President, approved the recommendations after due diligence and adherence to established procedures. This was, of course, necessary to deal with huge backlog of unpaid cash calls which the Buhari administration inherited, and to incentivize much needed fresh investments in the oil and gas sector.”
There has been controversies over award of contracts by the NNPC under the watch of its Group Managing Director, Dr Maikanti Baru.