ABUJA- As Nigerians eagerly await the Subsidy Utilisation Probe report, the House of Representatives, has come under intense pressure from highly placed individuals in the country to kill the report.
Competent sources reveled in Abuja, yesterday, that influential people, including traditional rulers and a former president have been recruited by those indicted by the report to save them from public embarrassment and especially the criminal prosecution which has been recommended by the Farouk Lawan led-Ad-hoc Committee.
A Principal officer of the House who spoke with Vanguard yesterday said ‘the speaker of the House of Representatives has come under intense pressure from most unlikely quarters, including some prominent traditional rulers who have been calling to say that he should find a way of watering down the report so that friends of the government would not be unduly exposed’.
A member of the Committee who spoke with Vanguard yesterday said ‘more profound revelations would be unearthed when the report is submitted to the House of Representatives today (Wednesday) or Tomorrow ( Thursday) as the money involved in the scandal is in the neighbourhood of half a Trillion Naira’.
According to the member, ‘since the draft report of one of the consultants engaged for the writing of the final report was released, the chairman of the committee, Faruk Lawan has been under intense pressure from top government officials, including some top notch members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. We want to submit this report to the House as soon as possible and leave the final decision with the House to take.
“What we discovered to have been paid to some marketers who did not supply fuel or who under supplied is more than N500billion. And the companies that are involved in this unwholesome practice are more than one hundred. Nigerians will be shocked when the final report is laid before the House soon” the member who does not want to be quoted told Vanguard.
Asked why the report was not submitted today as widely expected, the member said ‘we wanted to brief the House leadership before finally submitting the report to the House. The speaker was out of town on Monday and we could not meet with him. We hope that we would meet with him tonight (yesterday Night) and probably lay the report tomorrow (today). We want to take every precaution so that essence of the committee would not be defeated’ he said.
Speaking on the pressure the House leadership has been going through, the principal officer noted that ‘it is amazing top government officials who have been preaching war against corruption in the day would turn round to call for the sweeping under the carpet exposure of corruption. Because of the pressure the speaker has come under, he is determined to ensure that the report when submitted would not only be passed by the House but the National Assembly as an institution would ensure that the recommendations are implemented to the letter. We will not let Nigerians down on this matter’.
As at the time of this report, members of the Faruk Lawan-led committee were meeting on the final draft of the report preparatory to their meeting with principal officers of the House of Representatives before the report is presented to the House for final consideration and approval.
Meanwhile a group that called itself Petroleum Stakeholders Movement has urged the House of Representatives to reject the report of the Ad-Hoc Committee on fuel subsidy for being one-sided.
In a statement by its President, Mr. Frank Diobi, in Abuja, yesterday, the group questioned the rationale for singling out only 69 oil firms for indictment and for refunds when indeed, more than 100 fuel importers appeared before the Farouk Lawan Committee.
“We need to emphasize that the House cannot consider the Farouk Lawan committee report without a comprehensive review of fuel subsidy regime from 1999 to date.
“From the publications, we have every reason to suspect the report because it is silent on many issues. One, many oil firms appeared before the committee, what informed the conclusion that led to the singling out of 69 oil firms out of over 100 involved in fuel importation.
“The committee should release the details of how it arrived at its conclusion. It should also come up with a position on the status of other oil firms and clarify whether they have been given a clean bill of health or not. This will clear public odium which some of these firms were subjected to by the conduct of the public hearing of the ad hoc committee.
“Two, why did the committee ignore official fact-sheets from the NNPC and PPPRA on payment of 2010 subsidy arrears on HHK which shot up the 2011 fuel subsidy to about N1.6trillion. Instead of acknowledging the sound technical explanation from the NNPC and the PPPRA, the Lawan Farouk Committee went off the track by dismissing the computed arrears for HHK(Kerosene) as illegal having been prescribed by a presidential directive in 2009.
“Could the NNPC and the PPPRA be watching while the nation was almost brought to a standstill because of scarcity of kerosene?”, the group queried.
It accused the committee of trading on sentiments and that there seemed to be which explained the rejection of the computed subsidy arrears on HHK by the panel.
We want the committee to emulate the Senate on how it conducted hearing into the BPE activities. The inquiry was broad-based and broad-minded.
“We appeal to the Senate to go ahead with its own probe of the fuel subsidy scam to give Nigerians the other side of the subsidy regime.
“As it is now, it is obvious that the House Ad Hoc Committee has a pre-determined agenda and we advise Nigerians to be careful in accepting its report”, the group said.
via Vanguard
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