A board member of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Senator Magnus Abe, on Wednesday said he was not involved in any $650 oil contract scam.
He said a committee he headed was not set up to award any oil block.
He was reacting to a story (not by TBI Africa) titled: Petroleum minister, cronies plot kangaroo NNPC report to divert $650 million oil contracts to themselves.
In a statement, he said the report was designed to arm-twist the Federal Government in the attempt to revoke some oil blocks.
Abe led the presidential inter-ministerial committee on the abandoned $1 billion Kaztec Engineering Limited (KEL) fabrication yard in Lagos.
He said there was nothing in the committee’s presidential assignment that involved the allocation of oil blocks.
“There is absolutely no scam on oil blocks or contracts involved in the Kaztec committee report. Issues of revocation, allocation and management of oil blocks are exclusively the preserve of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
“In the light of the abandonment of the oil blocks, the lack of investment in the field, the colossal losses to the Nigerian economy by the actions of Addax, DPR was right to recommend a revocation of the mining leases issued to Addax in the national interest,” the former senator said.
He urged those who have contrary interests to pursue them without destroying the economy, stressing that those peddling lies are trying to mislead the presidency.
