These are not the best of times for Mr. Wale Tinubu, Group Chief Executive of Oando Nigeria Plc as powerful forces at the presidency are very angry with him for revealing secrets.

This explained why Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources denied claims by him that a concession deal had been reached with his company.

Kachikwu at an investigative hearing conducted by the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Planned Concession of Port Harcourt Refinery revealed that the government had no plan to concession or privatise the oil facility.

He said Mr. Wale Tinubu, was “jumping the gun” over an advertorial in which he implied that his company had been granted concession for the refinery.

Wale Tinubu revealed recently that his company had entered into an MoU with the Federal Government to manage the Port Harcourt refinery under a repair, operate and maintain arrangement.

“We also got approval from the President to repair, operate and maintain the Port Harcourt refinery together with our partner, Agip. We plan to increase the refinery’s capacity from 30 per cent to 100 per cent, subsequently to 120 per cent.”

However, He denied that the company had reached a deal with the government to take over the facility when he appeared before the senators: “I think parties in the industry must be allowed to engage the regulators to discuss solutions and possibilities and they must be negotiated and crafted into something worthy of being taken to the regulators, to consider whether or not it will lead to concession or transactions worthy of regulators’ approval.”

“The truth of the matter is that we do need to be allowed as professionals to carve out our position before we can present it. Along the line, as corporates, we do meet with our regulators and many times expressions of interests have been submitted regarding how the refineries can be revamped. We call it memorandum of understanding.”