The National Petroleum Investment Management Servic-es (NAPIMS) has said it is untrue that it spent about N90 billion on public and media relations in 2021. It also said it was incorrect that it spent N11.76 billion on consultancy, N2.22 billion on transportation and travelling cost, N65 million and N1.1 billion on advertisements and entertainment, respectively in 2021.
It stated these in a statement it released in Abuja yesterday. It said: “Management’s attention has been drawn to a false and malicious report by online publications alleging that the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), now NNPC Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS), spent about N90 billion on ‘Public Relations’ in 2021.
“Except for deliberate mischief, which should have no place in serious journalism, we find it difficult to understand why expenditures incurred wholly and necessarily for petroleum operations to advance the joint venture operations of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) would be sensationalised as ‘public relations.’ “A simple call would have saved the journalist, who wrote the report and other media houses who rehashed it, the embar-rassment of peddling such ignorance. “For the record, the audited financial statements of NAPIMS represent the equity share in the 13 joint venture arrangements in the upstream sector of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.”
