Emefiele, Kachikwu to appear before Reps committee over alleged forex diversion

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu and the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele were, on Thursday, requested to appear before the Lower House on Monday, April 7.According to the House ad hoc Committee on the Review of Petroleum Pump Price, which issued the summons, this was to have them explain issues over alleged diversion of foreign exchange by some oil marketers between 2016 and 2017.Also invited are Chief of Naval Staff, Ibok-Ete Ibas, Chief Executive Officers of Keystone Bank and Zenith Bank, all involved in the allocation of foreign exchange to oil marketers.The chairman of the Committee, Nnanna Igbokwe, urged the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to determine the whereabouts of Andrew Alagu, the managing director of HAR Petroleum Resources Ltd, by March 27.Mr. Igbokwe said: “The invitation is to determine the involvement of the company in alleged diversion of 26 million dollars for importation of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) under the Direct Sale Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangement of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)”.A letter was actually sent from HAR Petroleum Resources Ltd absolving itself from engaging in importing the product and could not have sourced for and accessed foreign exchange from CBN, but was disregarded by the committee, Mr. Igbokwe said.The committee chairman further said that the documents provided by Crude Oil Marketing Department of the NNPC confirm the company’s participation in the business.“We have it on good authority that in 2014, your company applied and got over 11 million dollars, and in 2015, it got another forex of over 14 million dollars from Zenith Bank for the importation of petroleum products into this country”, he said.