$25bn contracts: "EFCC, ICPC should decide Kachikwu, Baru’s fate"

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as well as the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission to investigate the controversy surrounding the award of $25bn contracts in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.


The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, and the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru, have been at loggerheads over the process of awarding the contracts.

Speaking with one of our correspondents on the telephone on Tuesday, the Executive Director of SERAP, Adetokunbo Mumuni, said the EFCC and the ICPC would be able to determine if such contracts existed or if the contracts followed due process.

Mumuni said, “I don’t want to take sides with anybody but the oil sector needs to be put straight and due process must be followed in the award of contracts.

“The investigators such as the EFCC and the ICPC must come into this matter. They must investigate transparently and release the report of that probe.

“This is necessary so that Nigerians can know what has transpired. Was due process followed? Was the process of awarding the contracts free of corruption? It is only when this has been determined that this government can prove that its anti-graft war is real.

“The NNPC has been in existence since 1977 under Olusegun Obasanjo as military head of state and Muhammadu Buhari was the first minister of petroleum and there was provision for a governing board. So, investigators will be the ones to tell us if there was corruption or not.”