Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has claimed that former President Umaru Yar’Adua declined the sale of the Port Harcourt Refinery to a consortium led by business mogul, Aliko Dangote, because it did not follow due process.
OBJ explains how NNPC blocked Dangote’s plan to run Nigeria’s refineries
Legit.ng earlier reported that Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had, in an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday, January 1, 2025, explained how NNPC frustrated Dangote’s plan to purchase Nigeria’s refineries.
Obasanjo said Dangote assembled a team and offered $750 million to run the facilities.
He told his predecessor to refund the money, claiming that NNPC promised to run the plants.
Falana reveals reason Yar’Adua cancelled sale of PH refinery
However, in a statement on Friday, January 3, Falana said the sale reversal was a critical step in addressing the legal and ethical breaches surrounding the transaction and protecting Nigeria’s national interest.
The senior lawyer alleged that Obasanjo bypassed this legal requirement by sidelining then-Vice President Atiku Abubakar and directly managing the privatisation of several state-owned enterprises.
As reported by The Punch, Falana stated that Obasanjo sidelined the Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, in contravention of the Privatisation and Commercialisation Act, which designates the Vice President as the chairman of the National Council on Privatisation.
The statement reads:
“In utter breach of the Act, President Olusegun Obasanjo sidelined Vice President Atiku Abubakar and took over the privatisation of a number of public enterprises.
“Before the deal, President Obasanjo had acquired large shares in Transcorp through ‘blind trust’.
“Many interest groups in the country questioned the legal validity and moral propriety of the sales as they were consummated in the last days of the Obasanjo Administration.
“On May 17, 2007, President Obasanjo sold a 51% stake in the Port Harcourt Refinery to Bluestar Oil for US$561 million. In another transaction that took place on May 28, 2007, President Obasanjo sold 51% shares in Kaduna Refinery to Bluestar Oil for $160 million.”
NNPC may reduce crude supply to Dangote Refinery
The cut was expected to begin as two other Nigerian refineries had started production.
The NNPC manages the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, which operate at a combined capacity of 135,000 barrels per day.
