โฆSays Letterhead, Address, Phone Numbers Used In Writing Petition To US Govt Fake
Four Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) have disowned a petition written to the United States government against the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL), Mallam Mele Kyari and the Chief Executive Officer of Matrix Energy.
The NGOs said this during a press briefing on Monday addressed by the Convener of Initiative for Leadership and Economic See, Splendour Akponkpolor; the Convener of Civil Society for Good Governance, Chief Dominic Ogakwu and the Convener of Social, Political, Economic, Educational, Jacob Okpanachi.
The Convener of Environmental Rights Initiative (SPEEERI) and the Restore Nigeria Initiative, Victor Itsede also attended the media briefing.
The group described the petition as mischievous and said none of its members were involved in the process leading to the drafting and submission of the petition.
The disclaimer follows a petition sent to the US Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) which was allegedly written by the Concerned Citizens on Economic Reform Nigeria, signed by Tijani Ibrahim and Amb. Abubakar.
But the coalition said it is worrisome that the petitioners drafted the petition using its letterhead.
The coalition said the name of one of the people who signed the petition matches a member, adding that the authors โmischievously adoptedโ the name to mislead the US authorities.
The NGOs said, โWe have gathered you here to denounce the letter written to the US government and to state categorically clear that we were impersonated by those who wrote it.
โFor the records, the NGO who wrote it in disguise of one of ours is not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. Secondly, the two phone numbers used in their letterhead do not exist anywhere but created out of their memories.
โMost importantly, the address listed there as Suite B5, 3rd Floor, Danville Plaza; No 5, David Ejoor Crescent, Abuja is currently unoccupied. We all occupied various sections of Danville Plaza for over ten years as NGOs but last year December, the owner of the place sold it and we all moved to new place.
โEven while we used the plaza as our office, there was nothing like B5 and it was never numbered that way. As we speak, the place is currently unoccupied and totally empty.
โWe therefore wonder who will use a non-registered NGO to write to a country like the USA from a non-existing address, in order to make it look like our work as former occupants of the place.โ
The NGos said they โdo not subscribe to blackmailโ of Kyari and the Matrix CEO, adding that they โwill not sit back and watch people impersonate organization we have built credibly for years in order to make us look like enemies of a well-meaning Nigeria state.โ
It advised the US Department to disregard the petition submitted by the โimpersonators.โ
The NGOs alleged that the impersonators were fighting for their interests.
โWe find it distasteful to be used by any group of persons or companies fighting for their own interests, and will be proceeding to submit a letter of disclaimer to the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) through its United States, Embassy in Abuja on this issue that is almost eroding our integrity, credibility and reputation,โย theย NGOsย added.