Economic Sabotage: We are not thieves, Mele Kyari tells Senate

**We have not done anything to sabotage Local refineries

The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC limited) Mele Kyari on Wednesday opened up on his frustration over a what he described as media attack on his person insisting that they at the company are not thieves or criminals
This was as the Senate panel also raised questions over $1.5 billion approved in 2021 for the turn-around maintenance of the Port Harcourt Refinery with little or no result amid pervasive allegations of sabotage in the petroleum industry
Consequently, the upper chamber lamented that it was unfair and wrong to treat government businesses or public companies as an orphan while private businesses were flourishing and thriving.
Kiyari expressed his frustration at the Senate Ad-hoc Committee probing alleged economic sabotage interactive session with critical stakeholders in the Petroleum Industry in Abuja on Wednesday.

Continuing, Kyari said,
“I will wait for the public hearing, and I also agree with the the Minister that it should be broadcast live so that Nigerians will hear us. So that all the misinformation that you see today will be put to the side, so that Nigerians will know the truth.

“And all of us here see what is happening in the media. Targeted personal attack on my person, on the institution, and we all know how this works.They are deliberate, they are calculated.
“So that it creates the impression that NNPC Limited and our leadership are doing anything to create economic sabotage in our country. It is far from it, Mr. Chairman.
“This company has grown,We are proud to say this. From a lost company for 43 years to a profit-making company today.
“It is very clear from everything you have said. Through this investigative hearing, that you can see the majority of the issues you have raised have nothing to do with NNPC Limited. Yet, everybody believes, by sheer misinformation which the Minister has highlighted, that NNPC is responsible for creating any economic sabotage in our country.

According to him, refining business is straight business where the feedstock and you must secure a market. This is basic even for NMPC refiners.

“Let me talk straight to this, It is a perfect opportunity also we have done nothing to sabotage any domestic refinery. Any one of them. There are many of them.

“Some of them are small scale. Mr. Chairman, but there is a law that guides everything we are doing. Mr. Chairman, the law is clear.
“There is domestic crude oil supply obligation. Yes, what it is saying is that process it locally, provide for local refinery, absolutely correct.
“But the law also says that there must be a willing buyer and a willing seller. He didn’t say anything else. And perhaps the only way it cannot be solved is for this National Assembly to change the law.”