Atiku reiterates on plans to sell NNPC the way Obasanjo sold NITEL
– The PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar reiterated on his plans to sell NNPC if elected
– He disclosed that the NNPC had failed in it duties
The Presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, Alh. Atiku Abubakar was in Kaduna state today for a town hall meeting with wards, local government, and state party leaders ahead of the 2019 Presidential election rescheduled to take place on the 23rd of Feb.
Atiku Abubakar in his statement in Kaduna today reiterated his plan to sell the Nigerian National Petroleum Commission NNPC if elected as the President.
The former Vice Pres. disclosed that the NNPC had failed in it duties and should be sold, he added he would sell it the same way former Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo sold the Nigerian Telecommunication Limited NITEL during his tenure.
According to him, selling the NNPC and all the three refineries was the best thing to do for the country.
Atiku while speaking on how the sale of NITEL was done under former Pres. Obasanjo said “Under Obasanjo, NITEL went through several botched sales and management turnaround contracts. First, 51 per cent of the shares was sold to a group of investors under the trading name of Investors International London limited.
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Atiku, who was the Vice Pres. to Obasanjo added that the sale was cancelled after the investors failed to pay but in 2003, the government approved a management change contract with a firm called Pentascope. “The contract was cancelled in 2005 after it became clear Pentascope did not have the adequate resources to run NITEL,” he said.
The Presidential candidate disclosed that “In 2005, government again offered NITEL to Orascom. This failed again, leading the government to sell it to a subsidiary of Transcorp in 2007.
“The sale was revoked in 2009. In 2014, the firm was sold to NATCOM, a group of investors led by Tunde Ayeni. Ayeni since then has been running it as NTEL.”
