11 August 2012, Sweetcrude, ABUJA – MR. Andrew Yakubu, group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, said Friday that the corporation is committed to the provisions of the Freedom of Information, FoI, Act.
Yakubu disclosed this at an induction ceremony for its new employees, saying that this is contrary to reports that the corporation was not bound by the FoI Act.
Stressing that the NNPC respects the provisions of the Act, he stated that the company had in the past, prior to the promulgation of the Act in 2010, willingly obliged information requested from it to the general public.
According to him, the NNPC have no reason to with hold information from members of the public given that the company is covered by established laws of the country.
He was reacting to recent media reports quoting NNPC’s Secretary and Legal Adviser, Anthony Madichie, as saying the company was not bound by the provisions of the Act as a “statutory corporation” by virtue of section 31 of the FoI Act.
Responding to a request from a media house for information in line with the provisions of the Act, Madichie had said: “Please be informed that the Freedom of Information Act applies to Public Institutions as defined under the Act.
“In this regards, Section 31 of the Act defines Public Institution as follows: “… any legislative, executive, judicial, administrative or advisory body of the government, including boards, bureau, committees or commissions of the state, and any subsidiary body of those bodies including but not limited to committees and sub-committees which are supported in whole or in part by public fund or which expends public fund and private bodies providing public services, performing public functions or utilising public funds.”
