Senate panel alleges interference over petroleum bill – The Guardian
October 21, 2009 by Bunmi Awolusi
Two days into its work in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, Senators working on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) have raised an alarm that top shots of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) are putting undue pressure on them and distracting them from facing the work for which the Senate gave the committee two weeks.
In fact, Chairman of the Joint Committee on Petroleum Upstream, Downstream, and Gas Resources, Senator Lee Maeba, has threatened to take the matter before President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to find out if the PIB is meant for the NNPC or all the stakeholders in the sector.
But the NNPC yesterday denied that its officials were in Calabar to sway the lawmakers. Its Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, said on phone: “There is no truth whatsoever in the allegations. I am in my office, the Group Managing Director is in his office; all our officials are in their offices.”
