The House of Representatives has stopped Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum and Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) from going ahead with his planned unbundling of the corporation this week without amending its extant establishment law, the NNPC Act, 2004.
House Speaker Yakubu Dogara, presiding over Tuesday session, described as a desecration of the Constitution if the minister did not allow NASS to legislate the unbundling of NNPC before he proceeds.
Consequently, the lawmakers asked President Muhamnadu Buhari to send an executive bill to the National Assembly as constitutional due process demands to be able to unbundle NNPC into the 30 companies planned by the ministry.
A motion by Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe (PDP, Ogoja/Yala Federal Constituency of Cross River State), argued that changing NNPC could only proceed with the amendment of its Act by the National Assembly.
In concurrence, the House mandated its committees on Petroleum Upstream, Downstream, Gas and Local Content as well as Legislative Compliance to ensure that the Minister of State for Petroleum was stopped from usurping the powers of the National Assembly.
