By Simon Ebegbulem

BENIN—FORMER Minister of State (Works) and former Group Executive Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mr. Chris Ogienmwonyi, has described the transfer of the OML 42 oil bloc being supervised by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, to NECONDE Energy Limited by the immediate past Petroleum Minister, Mrs Dieziani Alison-Madueke, as an abuse of due process and “theft of our national wealth.”

He urged President Muhammdu Buhari to investigate what he described as the rape of due process and “theft of our national commonwealth and ensure a reversal of this monumental theft so as to save the nation’s oil sector from collapse.”

It will be recalled that staff of NPDC in Benin headquarters, have been on strike for over a month following the alleged sale of the OML 42 to NECONDE by the Federal Government. They described the sale as illegal and fraudulent, adding that the alleged sale of one of the nation’s priced assets did not follow due process.

Ogiemwonyi said the reasons adduced by the former minister for the transfer of OML42 that the NPDC lacks the capacity to run the bloc was untrue and criminal.

Stressing that NPDC had over the years achieved tremendous success in its operatorship in OML 26, 30, 34, 40 and 42, he said it was sad that NECONDE whom the operatorship of OML 42 was handed over to, lacks the wherewithal to run the business.