The immediate past minister of petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, on Wednesday, berated the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Ajjampur Ghanashyam, over his allegations that she ‘sat’ on $15 billion oil deal while in office as minister of petroleum.
Alison-Madueke, whose position was disclosed in a press statement by her lawyers, Chike Amobi and Co., described the envoy’s allegations as spurious, unfounded and libelous.
She said Ghanashyam’s acrimony towards her was due to the refusal of the outgone Goodluck Jonathan Federal Government to allow an Indian company, Oil and Gas Commission Videsh Limited (OVL), default on its contractual obligation to provide a $6 billion investment, (around RS36, 600 crore) in an 180,000 barrels (bpd) Greenfield refinery and 2,000 megawatt power plant or railway line from East to West of Nigeria.
According to the statement, made available to journalists in Abuja by the lawyer, Ghanashyam’s allegation that she delayed the approval of oil concession to two Indian companies, OVL and Mittal Energy International JV, OMEL (MITTAL) in 2006, after receiving a $25,000,000.00 signature bonus, is spurious, false and lacking in substance.
Mrs. Alison-Madueke recalled that she was not the Minister of Petroleum Resources in 2006 when the said Indian companies entered into contractual agreement with the Federal Government and, as such, she would not have received any signature bonus either as citizen or minister.
The former minister said she had no personal reason to sit on the contract, and wondered why the High Commissioner would “choose to malign and attack her rather than commend her (for) acting dispassionately in recommending for refund of the said signature bonus to the Indians when the matter was brought to her attention at the twilight of her tenure as minister.”
She continued: “When the issue of the request for refund, made by OVL, was re-presented to me in May 2015, I immediately prepared and dispatched a letter dated 13th May, 2015, Ref #: PI.LM/3900/S.693/Vol.1/78b, to former President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GCFR), recommending for the refund of the said signature bonus in compliance with the relevant and extant laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which require such approvals to be granted by the President, and implemented by the Federal Ministry of Finance.”
Alison-Madueke further explained that the Federal Government voided the contract with OVL because the company wanted the Nigeria to waive the commitments they made during the bidding process which included investing $6 billion (around RS 36,600 crore) in an 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) greenfield refinery, a 2000 megawatt power plant or a railway line from East to West of Nigeria, all of which were considered in granting the concession in the first place.
On the allegation that the Indian High Commission to Nigeria suggested that contrary to global best practices in the industry, the former minister used intermediaries to receive payment for crude oil transactions with India, clearly imputing a fraudulent ill-feeling to her operation, she explained that the contract was a government-to-government crude oil sales transaction with established procedures which predated her tenure as minister.
She also maintained that the established procedure stipulates that the buying country, in this case India, selects and presents a local company as its agent to transact on its behalf as it is never the responsibility of selling country to select or nominate a company for the buying country.
Alison-Madueke said that Nigeria never dictated nor suggested any intermediary or marketing company for India for the purposes of the said transaction.
“Apparently, the Indian High Commission to Nigerian mischievously obfuscated these facts to malign the former Nigerian Petroleum Minister whilst not disclosing that it was a government to government crude sales transaction,” the lawyer said.
The former Minister revealed that what Mr. Ajjampur R. Ghanashyam neglected to inform Nigerians is that the oil concession was not granted to both companies due to inability of their subsidiary EMO Exploration and Production to meet cash obligation.
Mrs. Alison-Madueke said as a diplomat, the Indian High Commissioner who should foster bilateral and multilateral relations between his country and Nigeria, belittled “such a lofty position by officiously spreading false and misleading information calculated to malign Nigerian public officials, a conduct unbecoming of a foreign diplomat.
“We believe the conduct of Mr. Ajjampur R. Ghanashyam is aimed at damaging our client’s reputation for her insistence on protecting the interests of the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and for not acceding to inappropriate requests of his country to be relieved of its contractual obligations to Nigeria.
“Based on the falsity and unfounded allegations against our client, we firmly but humbly request an unequivocal apology and a complete retraction of the libelous statements from Mr. Ajjampur R. Ghanashyam against our client.”
The former minister advised the envoy to govern his future conduct properly, to prevent a reoccurrence of any other events that could diminish the exalted office of a diplomat he represents.
