Nigeria’s oil minister details state oil company deals he never approved
Abuja — Nigeria’s oil minister sent a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, listing at least $24bn worth of contracts involving the state oil company that he said were never discussed with him or the firm’s board, a copy of the document shows. Emmanuel Kachikwu, the state minister for petroleum resources, complained in the seven-page, August 30 letter to Buhari that during the more than one-year tenure of Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) group MD Maikanti Baru, no contracts had been submitted to the board for approval despite a legal requirement that "all contracts above $20m would need to be reviewed and approved by the board of the NNPC." "The communication under reference is a normal procedural correspondence by the minister to the president relating to developments in parastatals under his supervision," the oil ministry said in an e-mailed statement, without giving any further information. A spokesperson at the NNPC didn’t immediately respond to calls and a text message s...
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