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Buhari Will Turn To Oil Sector After Arms Deal Scam, Rotimi Amaechi Reveals

Rotimi Amaechi
Rotimi Amaechi

The Minister of Transportation, Chief Rotimi Amaechi, has revealed that very soon, President Muhammadu Buhari would turn attention to the oil sector after the current probe into the arms procurement deal.

The minister, who spoke today at a panel session on a round-table discussion organized by Business Eye in Lagos, said that the missing $49 billion oil revenue, which the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido, alleged that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) did not remit into the Federation Account, would be looked into.

“Even before Sanusi and President Goodluck Jonathan began to quarrel, I had to leak that letter. Sanusi wrote that letter to the President in September, I leaked it sometime in January, and that letter was personal: ‘Mr. President, $49bn was missing,’ and I got a copy of that letter.

“Instead of the Federal Government to say we are going to address this, they began to debate with the CBN governor and Nigerians join in the debate. Oh, it is not possible. Now, they have seen that is possible. I am sure this investigation going on, maybe when they finish with arms deal, they will go to oil. You will be seeing the stealing as it is going.”

Amaechi stressed that the fall in global oil prices has posed a big challenge for the country, adding that the benchmark oil price projected for this year budget needed to be reduced.

“We had assumed that if you benchmark is at $38, we will be comfortable. But now that oil price is $30, which means the National Assembly must adjust the benchmark towards $20 something because if they leave it at $38, then where will the money come from?

“In fact, our initial projection was $42, and the next thing is that we saw the price coming down to $43. So, we projected $38. So, we don’t will happen, and I won’t say it has bottomed out completely.” [myad]