Kachikwu to appear before Senate today over NNPC unbundling

Senate on Wednesday invited minister of state for petroleum resources, Ibe Kachikwu, to answer questions regarding the announced unbundling of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

To this end, the minister is to appear today (Thursday) at a joint session of the Senate Committees on Petroleum (Down and Upstream) and Gas.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), Tayo Alasoadura, who endorsed the letter of invitation, said they were ‘shocked’ and ‘in disbelief’ over the announcement of unbundling the NNPC.

The letter read in part, “Shocked by the announcement in disbelief, three committees overseeing the industry wish to invite the Minister to appear before them to brief them of this critical decision in a meeting schedule Thursday.”

Alasoadura said that the action was taken “without recourse to the Act establishing the NNPC and approval by the Senate of Nigeria.”

Senate Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume also told reporters in Abuja that the announcement of the unbundling of the corporation has generated issues that the Senate is looking into.

Ndume added that “We will call the leadership of NNPC to brief us about what is happening. The announcement has generated issues that the Senate is very much interested in. At the end of the day we will see exactly what happened. But we want the leadership of the NNPC to come and brief us.”