Senate demands Malabu oil deal, PIB reports

The Senate yesterday expressed dissatisfaction with the work of its joint committees on Finance and Petroleum Resources upstream which were mandated to probe the controversial Malabu oil deal.

The panels led by Senators Magnus Abe (APC, Rivers) and Ahmed Makarfi (PDP, Kaduna) were in July last year directed to investigate the controversial deal involving a former petroleum minister Don Etete, and Alhaji Mohammed Abacha, son of former head of state late General Sani Abacha.

This is coming just a day after the House of Representatives adopted the report of its adhoc committee which investigated the matter and ordered for the cancellation of the $1.1 billion oil deal in addition to transferring the ownership of Malabu to Abacha who was allegedly swindled by Etete.

Senator Olubunmi Adetumbi (APC, Ekiti) lamented that whereas the report of the European Parliament on the Malabu deal will be released soon, the Senate was yet to do anything on it.

Adetumbi also said that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has continued to linger in the Senate which he said, was affecting the economy badly and wondered why it has not been attended to by the Senate which, according to him, compounds the crisis rocking the petroleum sector.

Ruling on the matter, Senate President David Mark directed the committees affected to expedite action on the reports.

The PIB was first submitted to the parliament by late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua in December 2008 but was withdrawn in April 2010 by President Jonathan and resubmitted in July, 2012.

The Malabu oil deal involved the controversial sale of an oil block, OPL 245 owned by Malabu, an indigenous company jointly owned by Abacha, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Don Etete but was sold to an international oil company by Etete who claimed 100 percent ownership of the company after allegedly tampering with its ownership structure thereby edging out Abacha and Atiku.