NNPC Not Funding Alleged Plan to Remove Saraki, Says Spokesman

By Chineme Okafor in Abuja

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that it is not part of alleged plans to remove Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and is neither funding the plot.

It thus distanced itself from the ongoing politics in the National Assembly and denied media reports that its Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, had doled out funds to aid the removal of Saraki.

A statement issued in Abuja by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, described the report as the handiwork of mischief makers seeking to drag the NNPC and Baru into a purely political affair totally different from its mandate as the national oil company with fiduciary responsibilities to the government and people of Nigeria.

Ughamadu stated that the report was not only false but also an affront on reported reforms carried out by Baru at the corporation.

He explained that the reforms have witnessed irreversible strides in the area of transparency with the sustained publication of NNPC monthly operations and financial records.

He further said it was mere fiction and outright ‘tales by moonlight’ for anybody to insinuate Baru or anybody else could just take a dip into NNPC’s account and dole out the volume of funds being portrayed in the report for political purpose.

Ughamadu thus called on all well-meaning members of the public and oil and gas industry stakeholders to discountenance the report, noting that the management of the corporation was committed to its statutory role and responsibility to the entire federation.