I have received several death threats from oil thieves, GCEO of NNPCL, Kyari, raises alarm

The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, Mr Mele Kyari, has raised the alarm about potent threats to his life by those opposing the ongoing massive reforms in the nation’s oil and gas industry.

“There are threats to life, I can say this, I have several death threats but we are not bothered about this. We believe that no one dies unless it is his time.

“Without mincing words, I want to say that this industry is on a threshold of change, there is massive change going on and it is very expensive and of personal cost to many people including myself,’’ he said.

Kyari spoke in Abuja at the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Summit organized by the House of Representatives Anti-Corruption Committee.

According to the NNPC boss, those opposed to the changes in the sector have resorted to threats in a bid to have their way.

“But this is the cost of change. When people move away from what they are used to something that is new that will take away value and benefit from them, they will react.”

Persecondnews recalls that on assumption of office in 2019 shortly after President Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration, Kyari has implemented his TAPE agenda –Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence — a five-step strategic roadmap for NNPC’s attainment of efficiency and global excellence.

Kyari has been able to turn around the fortunes of NNPC and make it competitive globally following the transition of NNPC to a full-fledge commercial, CAMA company.

Under the roadmap, the Transparency component of the agenda was aimed at maintaining positive image, share values of integrity and transparency to all stakeholders, while the Accountability segment of the campaign is to assure compliance with business ethics, policies, regulations and accountability to all stakeholders.

In terms of the two-prong item of Performance Excellence, the idea was to entrench a high level of efficiency anchored on efficient implementation of business processes which would also emplace an appropriate reward system for exceptional performance among the workforce

For Kyari’s achievements in repositioning the oil and gas industry has been described as unrivaled in the annals of the oil and gas.

The achievements including increasing the nation’s oil reserves to 40 billion barrels from 37 billion barrels, resolving disputes around deep offshore bloc to further boost the nation’s oil production.

Other landmark strides are the ongoing  construction of the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline project described by President Muhammadu Buhari as a game changer for the oil and gas industry as well as breaking the circle of petrol queues at filling stations across the country.

Also recording another first, the Petroleum Industry Bill, stuck in the National Assembly for about 12 years, was resuscitated, passed and assented to by Buhari with NNPCL’s profit growing from N287 billion in 2020 to N674 billion in 2021.

NNPCL declared in its 2021 financial period N674bn profit representing an increase of N387bn or 134.8 per cent against the N287bn recorded in 2020.