The Coalition of Civil Society Groups has cleared the air on a recent petition to the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC, by one of its members.
Recall that a group of concerned Nigerian citizens had petitioned the US government, asking it to investigate the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and its CEO, Mele Kyari, for allegedly violating sanctions on Russian crude oil.
In a letter to the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the group claimed that NNPCL under Kyari’s leadership has been importing Russian crude oil and petroleum products above the price cap set by the Price Cap Coalition, comprising the US, G7, EU, and Australia.
The Concerned Citizens on Economic Reform Nigeria (CCERN) alleged that NNPCL has been blending petroleum products in Malta with Russian crude oil sourced above the $60 per barrel threshold, resulting in a violation of the sanctions.
They further claimed that the transactions involved amounts running to over $2.08 billion, enabling Russia to earn substantial revenue to fund its war efforts.
While the office address listed on the letterhead belongs to the Concerned Citizens on Economic Reform Nigeria and the name used by the writers was also allegedly twisted to look like one of its own, the Coalition denounced the group.
Addressing the press in Abuja on Monday, Dominic Ogakwu, the Convener of Civil Society Group for Good Governance, and Comrade Victor Itsede, Convener of Restore Nigeria Initiative, said the petition was never from them.
They said, “Last week, we were flooded with calls from all sectors of Nigeria following a petition to the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) through its United States, Embassy in Abuja by one NGO self-styled as The Concerned Citizens on Economic Reform Nigeria, signed by two persons namely Comrade Tijani Ibrahim as Convener and Amb. Fatima Abubakar as Secretary.
“The petition titled ‘Persons of interest in the violation of the coalition-agreed price cap on Russian crude’, was against the GCEO of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, Mr Mele Kyari and the Chief Executive Officer of Matrix Energy group, Abdulkabir Adisa Aliu.
“The various calls to us from Nigerians centered on the fact that the office address listed on the group letterhead belongs to us and the name used by the group was also twisted to look like one of our own.
“The name of the convener also happens to be assumed to be one of us since we have such a name in our coalition.
“We denounce the letter written to the US government and to state categorically clear that we were impersonated by those who wrote it.
“For the records, the NGO who wrote it in disguise of one of ours is not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
“Secondly, the two phone numbers used in their letterhead do not exist anywhere but created out of their memories.
“Most importantly, the address listed there as Suite B5, 3rd Floor, Danville Plaza, No 5, David Ejoor Crescent, Abuja is currently unoccupied. We all occupied various sections of Danville Plaza for over ten years as NGOs but last year December, the owner of the place sold it and we all moved to new place.
“Even while we used the plaza as our office, there was nothing like B5 and it was never numbered that way. As we speak, the place is currently unoccupied and totally empty.
“We therefore wonder who will use a non-registered NGO to write to a country like the USA from a non-existing address, in order to make it look like our work as former occupants of the place.
“The United States Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) should disregard the petition submitted by the impersonators as its not authored by any of us who are former occupants of the address in the non-existing NGO.
“We find it distasteful to be used by any group of persons or companies fighting for their own interests, and will be proceeding to submit a letter of withdrawal to the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) through its United States, Embassy in Abuja on this issue that is almost eroding our integrity, credibility and reputation.”
Alleged Russian crude importation: CSOs clear air on petition to US Govt
