Petition against Naval Chief, frivolous, unfounded – Lawyer

An Abuja based Legal Practitioner, Ugochukwu Osuagwu has dismissed the publication by an online medium against the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla describing it as frivolous and unfounded.

Bar. Osuagwu in a press conference addressed in Abuja Thursday said it was crystal clear that trending publication of PEOPLES GAZETTE against the Chief of Naval Staff and Nigerian Navy lacks facts and was maliciously frivolous.

He therefore, respectfully urge the Public to completely discountenance the petition/Publication and the contained allegations in their entirety.

Continuing, Osuagwu noted that Nigeria’s crude oil output rose to an all-time high of 1.35 million barrels per day in September 2023 under the leadership of Chief of Naval Staff, saying that Nigeria pumped its highest volume of crude oil so far in 2023 under Ogalla.

“Latest figures obtained from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, showed that the country’s output in September was about 14 per cent higher than what it pumped in the preceding month of August 2023.

“Further analysis of figures obtained from the NUPRC indicated that in January, February and March of 2023, the country’s oil outputs were 1,266,659bpd; 1,292,240bpd; and 1,266,737bpd respectively before the current Chief of Naval staff assumed office. Interestingly, Nigeria’s crude oil production rose to 1.41 million barrels per day in December 2023, from 1.31 million bpd in November 2023. These clearly show that oil theft has been reduced to its barest minimum under Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla.

“We have painstakingly looked through the publication in line with extant best practices and existing laws. However, after investigation we found the petition/publication as lacking in merit for the below reasons: The Nigerian Navy does not award oil related contracts. These are within the vires and competence of the NNPCL or Ministry of Petroleum” he noted.