Senate says Kachikwu did not contravene any law in restructuring NNPC

Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, did not contravene any law in the restructuring of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Chairman of the committee, Sen. Tayo Alasoadura, made this known while briefing journalists shortly after a closed-door meeting with Kachikwu at the National Assembly in Abuja on Thursday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the minister was at the senate to brief the committee on circumstances that led to the shutdown of NNPC’s operations nationwide on Wednesday.
Alasoadura said that the explanation given by Kachikwu indicated that the decision to restructure NNPC was to reposition it for optimal performance.
According to him, Kachikwu was only carrying out an internal restructuring to better position the corporation to serve Nigerians better.
He stated that the restructuring would help to cut down losses being experienced by the corporation in recent times.
The lawmaker, however, pointed out that the legislature was not consulted before such critical step was taken.
“He is working in the best interest of Nigeria. Now that the price of oil is going down, if we do not restructure, we might run into more problems as a country.
“Why we invited him was to be sure that the law was not contravened and we are convinced.
“From figures made available to us, NNPC in recent times lost about N30 billion monthly, but because of the restructuring, it lost only N3 billion, last month.
“The minister assured that the restructuring when completed, will help to end any form of loss.