Kachikwu apologises for not consulting Senate

He said “I must apologise that we didn’t take some of the senate leadership along the path of this restructuring but if you look at the draft of the Petroleum Industry Bill sent to us for our input, you will discover that the restructuring was within the suggestion we made.

“Having said that, I must take responsibility for not carrying out the necessary consultation as we should have done.”

The Senate also gave their blessing to the restructuring exercise in NNPC.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Senator Donald Tayo Alasoadura, after a closed door session with Kachikwu, held to clarify issues surrounding the ‘change’ in the NNPC, said “We have a very useful discussion with the minister. He clarified the issue that he was not unbundling NNPC because it is an entity created by an Act of the National Assembly and nobody can touch it unless he comes back to the National Assembly for ammendments.”

Read: NNPC workers call off strike after meeting with Kachikwu

The NNPC Group Managing Director(GMD), also told the Senators that the restructuring was in the best interest of the nation, as NNPC will be re-positioned to make more profit.

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana has however faulted Kachikwu’s move, saying it is illegal.