Prosecute Bala Wunti For Abuse Of Office, Economic Sabotage, N’Delta Group Urges FG

Sylvester Idowu in Warri 

A leading Niger Delta group, Community Development Committees (CDC) of Niger Delta Oil and Gas Producing Areas, has threatened to institute legal action against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over its failure to prosecute the former Group General Manager of Nigerian Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Bala Wunti, for economic sabotage.

The group, in a statement issued in Warri Friday and signed by its Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT), Joseph Ambakederimo, said the decision was in response to the refusal of EFCC to act on petitions by whistle blowers some years back.

According to the group, the whistle blowers had listed various alleged procurement fraud in ongoing tender and those awarded under the supervision of Bala Wunti.

It said: “It’s common knowledge the Nigeria oil sector has been in a situation that can well be described as being in intensive care due largely to issues ranging from corruption, abuse of office and economic sabotage perpetrated by very senior officials with high level of impunity and disregard to due process. 

“Before the wise step taken by President Bola Tinubu, there were fears that Bala Wunti would be made to control the NNPCL as the group Managing Director but to the relief of many across the sector, including many NNPCL staff, but to the benefit of Nigerians, President Tinubu for a very longtime in our country history has appointed those with the technical know-how and human conscience to lead the development of our beloved NNPC. We are very confident the new management will disinfect and improve our oil & gas sector.” 

The group maintained that the news making the rounds, concerning EFCC’s investigation of some recently sacked top management staff of the NNPCL will not be far reaching if individuals like Bala Wunti, a former Group General Manager of NAPIMS, the regulator subsidiary managing upstream activities now known as NUIMS, were not included.

“This agency could best be described as the backbone of the Nigerian oil industry, where a transparent regulatory and oversight on the international oil companies (IOC’s) will lead to the production of additional millions of barrels from our land and offshore assets. 

“It is an open secret that during the time NUIMS was headed by Bala Wunti, it could be argued that not much barrels of crude oil were added to the Nigeria daily production even with billions of dollars spent on purported projects. 

“And this is no coincidence, it was deliberate because of barefaced corruption in terms of manipulation of tenders to frustrating contractors and operators,” it added.  

The group recalled that in August 2022, a well circulated email and newspaper article by Citizen Group of Nigeria raised some troubling information in the form of whistle blowing listing around over 10 different fraud and abuse of office allegedly carried out by Wunti and how due processes and procedure were broken to accommodate his interests. 

“To further corroborate our position in calling for the investigation and prosecution of Bala Wunti and others, we have hereunder summarized the concerns raised by the whistle blowers, copies of the original articles/email circulated by the whistle blowers will be submitted to the EFCC to enable them carry out full investigation/prosecution.

“The whistleblowers alleged Bala Wunti was engaged in fraudulently inflating the yearly cash call budgets and called for a forensic investigation of potential financial reporting miss-conduct carried out by Bala Wunti. 

“The whistleblowers also raised some concerns about Bala Wunti allegedly inflating the cost of crude oil handling charges for every barrel of oil that was barged and included the cost in JV budget of up to $4 per barrel was added to the actual handling cost. 

“The whistleblowers alleged Bala Wunti was mounting immense pressure and intimidating various companies to engage a particular company nominated by Bala Wunti, this act caused delay and increased contract award rate. 

“The whistleblowers listed various alleged procurement fraud in ongoing tender and those awarded under the supervision of Bala Wunti,” it stated.

The group stated further: “Concerns regarding the award of a drillship contract at massively inflated rate was raised by the whistleblower and how the extension of existing drilling contract was delayed and frustrated by Bala Wunti. 

“If all or a single claim as made by the whistle blowers were accurate, then the scheme employed by Bala Wunti is one very critical factor that have driven up the cost of production of a barrel of crude oil in Nigeria and put the country at a disadvantage position amongst the comity of crude oil producing countries.”

The group noted that what ‘Bala Wunti and his co-travellers’ did was economic sabotage and should be prosecuted by the Federal Government to act as a deterrent to others.

The CDC therefore called for a full investigation to be carried out on all of the points listed by the whistleblowers to ascertain the claim and the prosecution of offenders to rekindle investors’ hope in the Nigerian oil sector that has suffered stunted growth for the last two decades.

“It is almost three years since the concerns were raised by the whistleblowers and questions remained if they have been properly investigated by EFCC.

“Similarly, as a follow up to ensure this call is acted upon by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, a formal petition (Class Action) has been filed at the commission’s headquarters. Failure of the EFCC to act on our petition expeditiously would leave us no option than to seek redress in court to enforce a mandamus,” it threatened.