Ex-official claims UK oil giant paid $900,000 to NNPC under Buhari as minister  to fund 2019 elections

A report by Bloomberg has revealed the claim of an ex-official of British Petroleum stating the oil giant paid $900000 to secure two oil cargoes in the run-up to the 2019 elections.

The former oil worker, Jonathan Zarembok, said the money was paid to a local agent after facilitating the deal.

President Muhammadu Buhari who doubles as the minister of petroleum sought and won a second term in 2019. The report, however, mentioned neither of the two dominant parties in the election

In what appears a pattern towards election periods, kickbacks, Bloomberg highlighted, from western oil pigs flood Nigeria and other oil-producing countries.

A former Glencore Plc employee in July admitted paying a middleman $300,000 to secure a crude shipment from the NNPC, understanding the money would be spent on the nationwide vote that took place four years earlier in 2015.

That was another election year when the PDP and the APC slugged it out, leading to the loss of incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the ruling PDP.

Zarembok, in employment claims lawsuits filed in London and New York, alleged that rakings from cargo allocation could have been spent on the 2019 elections.

It was because he raised the alarm the British oil company fired him last year.

Zarembok said in a witness statement made public this month that emails sent in 2017 by a BP executive in Nigeria were a “clear red flag” and implied “there would be pressure to pay bribes.”