by Michael Agbaji
The house of representative committee on petroleum upstream commence the investigation on the sale off and relocation of oil mining leases oml of addax of petroleum Nigeria limited by ministry of petroleum resources. the chairman house committee on petroleum upstream Hon sariki Adar decried the hurriedly way asset was sale to Chinese company sinopec. According to him, the committee was surprised that the sale of the asset become a subject of litigation the Supreme Court of Nigeria, he wonder case starts from the Supreme Court instead of lower court. The lawmaker also express their displeasure over the absence of key players in the sale of the asset like NNPC, DPR, Addax petroleum Nigeria limited and sinopec Ltd. Responding, the minister of state for petroleum resources Chief Timipre sylva said that there no breach of law on the disposal of the asset. according to him they was an issue of mismanagement of the asset bought by sinopec a Chinese company in 2009.He said the asset was sold by department of petroleum resources DPR without ministerial consent. According to him, a lot of interest was involved as the minister of state for petroleum resources and another memos from NNPC to the president on the sale of the asset. In the ruling of the committee, the NNPC, DPR and other stakeholders should be invited to appear before the committee on Thursday 21th of May 2021 for more clarification and Investigation.
