The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Saturday said it did not breach due process in the award of the controversial Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano, AKK, Gas Pipeline contract, or any other contract it handled.

Describing alleged breach or irregularity in the contract tendering process as misleading, the NNPC management also denied the contract was already approved before last Wednesday.

At the end of the FEC meeting in Abuja last Wednesday, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, told State House Correspondents that he had forwarded the controversial $2.7 billion (about N827 billion at N306.3=$1) for approval.

The contract had generated much tension in October after a memo Mr. Kachikwu wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari on August 30, 2017 leaked in the media.

In the memo, Mr. Kachikwu alleged insubordination by the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru, accusing him of not following due process in the tendering for the contract.

The minister had said Mr. Baru did not involve him as the chairman designate of the NNPC Board and the supervising minister of petroleum in the decision making process towards the final approval of the contract.

When asked to clarify why he had to again forward for approval the contract he had earlier accused Mr. Baru of awarding to a Chinese firm, the minister explained it was meant to correct observed irregularities in the tender process noted in his leaked memo to the president.

“What I complained about (in memo to the President) was about due process not being following in the initial approvals obtained without seeking my concurrence or input,” Mr. Kachikwu said.

He said before forwarding the memo to FEC on Wednesday, he had followed due process,

“What I did was an inverse approval process, which is post-the fact, by taking the details of the contact tender back to the NNPC Board, briefed its members and obtained their buy-ins.