Claim of ‘illegal’ sale of 48m barrels of oil baseless, Malami tells reps panel

Abubakar Malami

Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice, has appeared before a house of representatives ad hoc committee probing the alleged illegal sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil in 2015.

Recall that the committee had invited Malami over the alleged involvement of his office in the sale of the product but he ignored the invitations.

Speaking on Thursday, the attorney-general said the “purported” sale of the product was “baseless and unfounded”.

The minister said the whistleblower report that propelled the investigation by the ad hoc committee lacks substance.

“Let me state on record and for the benefit of Nigerians and the committee that the allegations relating to the 48 million barrels are baseless. The allegation is unfounded. It lacks merit and indeed substance,” the minister said.

“The allegation in its own right is devoid of any reasonable ground pointing to a material suspicion cogent enough to invoke the constitutional oversight of the committee.

“Sometimes in 2016, allegations were rife and hyped in social media. There were allegations of the existence of stolen 48 million barrels of Nigerian crude in China said to have been valued at N2.4 billion.”

The minister said at the time, President Muhammadu Buhari “informally” requested him, Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited; Lawal Daura, the then director-general of the Department of State Service (DSS); and late Abba Kyari to “look into” the allegation.

“But unfortunately, for there to be a reasonable ground for suspicion, at least, you require certain basic facts. The basic details of the existence of the product and connecting it to Nigeria were not there at all,” he said.

“The vessel perhaps that took it, the particulars and details of the vessel — were not available at our disposal at all.

“So the issue is simple. There were no reasonable grounds for suspicion of the fact that the purported oil product either exists in spirit or in fact or indeed exists in China — and it is in no way connected to Nigeria. And all efforts on our part to get details have proven abortive.

“So it was a committee that was dead on arrival because it has not been formally constituted and then our informal findings do not suggest or provide information that could support (the sale of the crude oil”.

“So we could not establish the substance in the allegation because detail information to confirm the existence and origin of the shipment such as a sample of the oil, vessel involved loading point, location of the crude in China were not provided.”

Malami said no further action was taken by his office after it was reported to the President that the “veracity of the allegation” could not be verified.

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