Senator Ayo Akinyelure, chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions, told the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to return the Atala marginal oilfield (OML 46) to its former owners during an investigative hearing on Thursday, October 6.
According to him, Buhari requested that the commission return the oilfield to its original owners by 2020, but the commission refused.
Both the NUPRC and the current owner, Halkin Oil, were absent from the hearing.
Senator Akinyelure said: “We have invited them severally and again; they have not been able to come before Nigerians and prove that the allocation of Atala oilfield to Halkin Oil is justified before the law and before humans.
Senator Akinyelure stated that the investigative committee has determined that the NUPRC must either comply with Buhari’s order or demonstrate that he has rescinded such order in order to justify their refusal to return the oilfield to the original owners.
He said: “The position of this particular committee in the last sitting was that we want the NUPRC to provide evidence before this committee today, to inform our decision on whether to support the position of NUPRC or not.
“It has not been heard anywhere all over the world that, when the President gives a presidential order, a civil servant would go ahead and reverse it without written permission from the President.
“So, we are not convinced by the report of the NUPRC and we make bold to say the NUPRC has been misinformed to allocate Atala oilfield to a private limited liability company when Mr. President had given a presidential Order that they should give consideration to former owners of 10 Oil fields,” he said.
“This committee, therefore, resolved as follows: that the revocation and allocation of Atala oilfield are hereby declared void; that Atala oilfield should be returned to its original owners, in line with the Presidential Order; that the NUPRC should carry out the Presidential Order immediately.