Nigeria's former petroleum Minister Dieziani Allison-Madueke demands Public apology

Mrs Madueke has described the statement by India's high commissioner Mr Ghanashyam that she delayed the approval of oil concession to OVL and Mittal Energy (MITTAL) after recieving a signature bonus of $25m as baseless and spurious. She attributed Mr Ghanashyam's acrimony towards her to the refusal of the immediate past government to allow Oil & Gas Concession Limited (an Indian Company) to default on its contractual obligation to provide $6 billion investment in a 180,000 bpd greenfield refinery, 2000 megawatts power plant and railway line from east to west Nigeria. Alison-Madueke asserted that she was not the Minister of Petroleum Resources in 2006 when the said Indian companies entered into an agreement with the Federal Government. As such, she said, she would not have received any signature bonus either as citizen or minister of the Federal Republic. She also said she had no personal reason to sit on the contract and wonder why the High Commissioner would choose to malign and attack her rather than commend her having acted dispassionately in recommending refund of the said signature bonus to the Indians when the matter was brought to her attention at the twilight of her tenure as Minister.