The Senate has threatened to sack and jail the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Mele Kyari, over the N12 trillion refineries’ Turnaround Maintenance (TAM).

The Senate Ad-hoc Committee investigating the various turnaround projects of refineries said Kyari’s NNPC and other executives in the oil sector have failed to submit relevant documents relating to the turnaround maintenance.

The Upper Chamber of the National Assembly disclosed that from 2010 to date, over N12 trillion had been spent on maintaining the refineries.

The Senate said its records show that over $592 million, €4.8 million and £3.4 million had been spent on turnaround between 2010 and 2023 without results.

The parliament made the threat on Wednesday, November 22, 2023 when the heads of the affected agencies shunned an interactive session.

The companies/agencies included the NNPC, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and their subsidiaries.

The Chairman of the Ad-hoc committee, Senator Isa Jibrin (Kogi East), stated that so much had been spent on the turnaround without result.

Senator Jibrin said: “We will ask for refund and dismissal of all the chief executives involved in the turnaround maintenance.”

The lawmaker stated that for weeks they had been demanding documents which the oil companies involved had not provided.

He said: “We sent them invitation more than two weeks ago requesting for documents and the documents have not been released after two weeks. So, we want the chief executives to be present.

“More worrisome is that between 2010 and 2020, the sum of N4.8 trillion was said to have been spent as operational expenses. How do you incur operational expenses that have to do with purchase of raw materials and similar expenses on factories that are moribund? How did we come about operational expenses? We need to know.

“These are issues that Nigerians want to know; they want solutions to all these leakages. We know they are leakages. Whether you accept it they are leakages and they are all forms of compromise within your various establishments.

“We know and we will not hesitate to escalate it to the highest possible level, including possibility of refund and outright dismissal of some of the heads of some of these agencies and possibly go to jail.”

Two members of the committee, Senators Yahaya Abdullahi and Sumaila Kawu berated the heads of the agencies for not showing up at the interaction.

Kawu said: “We will suspend this interaction until when you are ready. We have 100 ways which we can achieve our legislative work. We just wanted to give you fair hearing and you must respect the constitution.”

On his part, Senator Danjuma Goje, said: “We will have to agree on new dates for the submission of the documents both hard copies and soft copies and a date for meeting where the Chief Executive must appear.”

The adhoc committee gave the oil companies till Tuesday to submit the documents before the meeting with the chief executives.

The Star