Dr. Maikanti Kacalla Baru,, GMD NNPC/ Twitter
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has declared that it has no obligation to answer the Freedom of Information (FoI) request made by Femi Falana (SAN) on gasoline importation and varied issues.
In a letter by NNPC’s lawyer, O. B. Omale, addressed to Falana, it stated that the legislation that established NNPC precludes it from one of many authorities’s physique below obligations to reveal info below the FoI Act.
Omale mentioned: “Please learn that our consumer doesn't fall throughout the purview of the Freedom of Information, FoI, Act, 2011.
“The provision of the Act, significantly Section 31 thereof is evident and unambiguous as to the that means of Public Institution.
“Our consumer is neither a legislative, govt, judicial, administrative or advisory physique of Government of Nigeria.
“It is a physique established by legislation to handle the business pursuits of Nigeria within the oil and gasoline sector of the financial system and conduct commerce therein.
“It cannot, therefore, by any stretch of imagination be brought within the definition of Public Institution under the Act. “This position has received judicial endorsement via the Federal High Court’s decisions in several cases, including two cases instituted by Messrs. Public & Private Developments Centre Ltd.”
The company’s lawyer mentioned paperwork and knowledge requested by Falana “are expressly excluded from the purview of the Act by virtue of the provisions of Section 15( 1)(a)-(c) thereof, as they relate to trade secrets, commercial and financial information, which obviously are either subject to non-disclosure agreements or whose disclosure will likely interfere with contractual rights and obligations of third parties or harm their interests.”