The Senate yesterday resolved to probe alleged irregularities in the ongoing oil and gas lease renewal, which it said led to massive loss in government revenue.
The Senate therefore mandated the Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) to investigate all issues relating to the ongoing lease renewal being undertaken by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu and the Department of Petroleum Resources.
The committee is to report to the Senate the anomalies in the ongoing lease renewal process and identify appropriate measures to correct the said anomalies. The resolution was sequel to a motion by Sen Omotayo Alasoadura (APC, Ondo) and three others, namely Sen Baba Kaka Bashir Garbai (APC, Borno), Sen James Manager (PDP, Delta) and Sen Gershom Bassey (PDP, C/River).
Leading the debate on the motion, Sen Alasoadura noted with concern that the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources Upstream has since December 2017 been inundated with petitions and complaints about the irregularities in the ongoing renewal of oil and gas leases.
He said Kachikwu was granting “all manner of illegal discounts and rebates in the process of the ongoing renewal.”
“The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and the Department of Petroleum Resources have deliberately, wilfully and brazenly decided to depart from the subsisting legal framework and due process mandated by extant law for the renewal of all leases,” he said.
