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$210 Million Signature Bonus Missing

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Nigeria: Oil Probe - Obasanjo Signed As Minister, President - $210 Million Signature Bonus Missing

Daily Trust (Abuja)


Daily Trust (Abuja)

25 July 2008
Posted to the web 25 July 2008

Tashikalmah Hallah & Francis Okeke

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo signed each bid document for oil blocs twice, as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and as Minister of Petroleum Resources, the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee probing the activities of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), its subsidiaries and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) heard in Abuja yesterday.

It prompted charges by panel members that the former president may have violated the Constitution by so doing.

Also yesterday, the committee heard that $210 million representing signature bonus payments for the year 2003 could not be found in the accounts of the Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

This committee made the discovery when officials of DPR disclosed that they were ignorant of the location of $2O9 million out of $210 million paid by SHELL Petroleum in 2003 for acquiring an oil block (OPL 245) and $1 million out of $20 million paid by Zebra Oil in respect of OPL 248, also in 2003.

The whistle was blown on Obasanjo when Mrs. Elizabeth Aka, Legal Adviser to the DPR told the investigative panel that Directors of the DPR were shying away from telling the truth by not saying that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was the Minister of Petroleum Resources when bids for oil blocs were conducted in 2000 and 2003. Testifying before the panel, former Directors of DPR were making references to a certain 'Minister of Petroleum' during the 2000 and 2003 oil bid rounds but failed short of identifying the said Minister.

But Mrs. Aka interjected and said the former heads of the DPR 'were not bold enough' to tell the truth about the identity of the then minister.

"We were never bold enough to say that the President (Olusegun Obasanjo) is the minister (of petroleum resources). I have documents he signed for me as President of the federation and Minister of Petroleum", she said.

To buttress her point, Mrs. Aka tendered to the Committee a volume of documents purportedly signed in two places each by the former President, and the Committee Chairman asked the DPR to furnish the committee with the detailed documents. He also directed the secretariat to check the National Archives for the documents.

But when asked by Leonard Ogor (PDP, Delta State) whether as a lawyer, Mrs. Aka had drawn the attention of the former President to Section 147, sub sections one and two of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, she said she was not in direct contact with the President to give him such advice.

The Committee therefore said by the documents tendered, if proven to be genuine, the former President might have violated the constitution of the country.

Section 147 sub section one states that: There shall be such offices of Ministers of the Government of the Federation as may be established by the President. Section two says: "Any appointment to the office of Minister of the Government of the Federation shall, if the nomination of any person to such office is confirmed by the Senate, be made by the President".

The import of section 147, according to Ogor, was that former President Obasanjo could not have functioned as President and Minister of Petroleum respectively, saying he could not recall when the Senate confirmed the former President as Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

A former Director General of DPR from 2001 to 2005, Mr. Macaulay Ofurhie said about the missing money that he could not remember what happened to it. "To the best of my knowledge, the money was supposed to be paid into an escrow account," he said. The chairman of the committee, Rep. Igo Aguma (PDP, Rivers), gave DPR until Tuesday next week to locate the whereabouts of the money and tell the committee. Aguma said that "you have confirmed here that to the best of your knowledge that it was paid into an escrow account but by our records, Shell has paid and what is remaining in that account now is $1million.

"So what we are looking for now is $209 million, where it is located, that has been paid by Shell which you have confirmed on oath that it has been paid, but that you can't remember where it has been paid to. So we have agreed you will find out where it has been paid to and let us know."

Committee members also questioned why a wire transfer of $2.5million from Vintage Oil dated June 20, 2003 only got receipted in July, 2008 by the DPR. The amount was supposed to be for the oil bloc OPL 257 bided by Vintage Oil.

Explaining the conflict in dates, Moses Abiola Olaniyi, DPR Revenue officer, said "the anomaly noticed in the receipt is as a result of some factors that happened in DPR. The operational guidelines state that it is the office of the Accountant General that issues receipts, so many of these companies do not usually come for their receipts. If you look at the sequences in our records, you will observe that draft payments were receipted immediately while wire transfers are not."

He added, "It was only when the House of Representatives eventually requested for our presence and documentation that we called for the receipts and they were sent together".

Mr. Olaniyi added that the "$2.5m from Vintage was for signature bonus made on a bloc by Vintage Oil" though the former Director of the DPR, Macaulay Ofurhie maintained that the particular bloc was not awarded to Vintage.

The committee also questioned the method adopted by the DPR in the 2002 bid rounds. Rep. Aguma (PDP Rivers state) asked the former DG the procedures adopted and the justification for the procedures.

Ofurhie said that "with respect to the bid, we had a mini bid or what I can call a discretionary bid on October 2002 where we bidded for OPL 256. It was selective bidding. We had a memo from the office of the Presidential Adviser on Petroleum and Energy dated October 21 to carry out the bid."

Asked by Rep. Halims Agoda (PDP) on who the presidential adviser was then, Mr. Ofurhie said "the presidential adviser at that time was Dr. Rilwanu Lukman but I think the actual letter was signed by the Special Assistant on Petroleum, Funsho Kupkolokun.

"So we got the letter to do some bids on 256 and the bid list was coordinated from there and we processed the bid and at the end of it, we had only two bidders out of, we must have sent to about five or more.

There were only two that responded; Ocean Energy and Statoil. And at the end of the bidding, we had cause to recommend Ocean & Energy Oil Nigeria Limited as winner".

On whether the letter brought to him from the Presidential Adviser through the Special Assistant conveyed a superior authority, Mr. Ofurhie said, "yes of course and there was a discretionary list from the Minister on that and I think in 2000 when we started to opt for an open bid and 2005, in between, there was what I would say just ad-hoc procedure but it still needs some discretionary bidding; that is you select bidders instead of an open one. That was applied to this and the one in 2003".

Also uncovered was a controversial wire transfer of USD2.5m from Vintage Oil dated June 20, 2003 which only got receipted in July, 2008 by the DPR. This amount was supposed to be for the oil bloc OPL 257 which was yet to be awarded.