On Monday, October 9th, the group managing director of NNPC, Maikanti Baru, reacted to the allegations levelled against him by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu.
The Minister, in a petition written to President Buhari, accused Maikanti of insubordination and awarding of contracts without his approval as the supervising Minister.
Kachikwu accused Baru of awarding $25 billion contract without due process. Maikanti however in his response, said that two contracts worth $1 billion and $780 million, that were awarded on July 10th and July 31st, got presidential approval.
President Buhari was in London receiving medical treatment for an undisclosed ailment when the approvals were granted. President Buhari had on May 7th departed Nigeria for the UK and sent a letter to the Senate on May 9th to officially hand over power to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Kachikwu in his petition alleged that while President Buhari was away, Baru had approached Osinbajo for approval for some changes to be made in the corporation but the acting president declined, asking him to go through Kachikwu to seek for such approval. Kachikwu said he was shocked to see that the approval for the changes was granted on August 29th after President Buhari returned from his medical vacation.
