It is illegal for CBN to assume control of crude oil sales instead of NNPC- Atiku

Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) nominee for president in 2023, criticised the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) move to take over the Nigeria National Petroleum Company’s (NNPCL) crude oil sales on Thursday.

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Atiku called the ruling to be unlawful.

He bemoaned the fact that the Nigerian government had kept the public in the dark about its most recent decision.

“It must be clearly stated that the action is not legal in its application,” Atiku wrote in a post on X, “without prejudice to the possibility of any good that was intended in the decision of the Federal Government to make the @cenbank (CBN) take over the responsibility for crude oil sales proceeds from the @nnpclimited (NNPCL).”

“Yet, as is typical of this administration, the public has not received many details clarifying the decision.

As per publicly accessible information, the President has issued an order mandating that the NNPCL forward crude oil sales revenues to CBN for verification and certification.

“The presidential directive violates the legal position of the NNPCL, regardless of the merits of the new organisation.

“It is an arbitrary order that has the potential to undermine the NNPCL’s operational independence.”