Tormented, Diezani cries out over oil cabal

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has cried out that she is being harassed and demonised, by a cabal in the oil industry because the reforms she introduced in the oil sector has taken a lot of resources from foreign conglomerates, and placed them in the hands of Nigerians.

The oil minister who spoke to newsmen on Wednesday after the weekly FEC meeting, said “what is the surprise is the sort of malevolence bothering on personal malicious libel to my person during this period of time”,

She stated, that “I do believe that I have done the best for Nigeria in this job and I have attained many firsts in the history of oil and gas especially in the reforms that we have done. In this period of time, I have stepped on many big toes, particularly the toes of the cabals that were in the industry when we came in.

“I have said severally that we will open up the industry to all Nigerians, and we have, but that is not to the pleasure of certain cabals. And I have been continuously maligned because of this. We have taken millions and in fact billions of dollars out of the hands of multinationals and their subcontractors and put them in the hands of Nigerians through the Nigerian Content. Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have come into the oil and gas industry because of our reforms”.

She also spoke on the alleged missing funds from the coffers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as well as allegations of wasteful spending by her.

She disclosed that the NNPC has started refunding $1.48bn into the Federation Account as recommended by an audit firm, PriceWaterHouse Coopers, but did not disclose how much has so far been refunded by the corporation.

PriceWaterHouse Coopers had in its forensic audit report of the corporation recommended that the NNPC should refund the amount to the Federation Account.

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