Senate Spokesman, Abaribe |
The House of Representatives has excoriated the
Federal Government for its subtle moves to bury the Mallam Nuhu Ribadu-led
Petroleum Special Task Force report.
Consequently, it said President Goodluck
Jonathan’s government lacked the political will to fight corruption, especially
in the oil and gas industry.
Its position came in the wake of criticisms of
the report by the Presidency. The Special Assistant to President Goodluck
Jonathan, Dr. Doyin Okupe, had on Thursday, disparaged it as “containing
loopholes.”
The House, however, said it was not surprised by
the way the Executive handled Ribadu’s report because probes conducted into the
oil sector since 1999 had turned in damning reports, which the Presidency could
not act on.
The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public
Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, told SUNDAY PUNCH in Abuja that there
was “a deliberate attempt not to implement the Ribadu report.”
Mohammed noted that the investigation was
“calculated to fail from the beginning,” considering the controversies and
intrigues, which surrounded the work of the Ribadu committee.
He added, “So, what we have seen is the lack of
political will to prosecute.
“The House, for instance, conducted several
probes in the past and made recommendations, but how have we fared?
“We did the Farouk Lawan probe, it was
politicised; now there is Ribadu probe and the same drama is playing out.
“What this tells us is that there is no political
will to prosecute those who have been indicted.”
The lawmaker stated that though the National
Assembly had enormous constitutional powers to ask questions on the management
of public resources and recommend penalties where necessary, it was not the
duty of the legislature to enforce the penalties.
“We have our limits under the constitution.
“The constitution does not give us the power to
prosecute; that is the job of the Executive.
“We have asked all the questions and made
relevant recommendations, but there is failure of prosecution, which is not our
role as legislators,” he added.
Mohammed gave the assurance that the House would
continue to perform its constitutional responsibility of exposing corruption.
But The Presidency on Friday, said it was
unfortunate that there had been “ignorant carping and unintelligent
tittle-tattle” about Ribadu’s report.
Presidential spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, made
the position of the Presidency known in an interview with one of our
correspondents.
According to Abati, those talking about
“political will” are beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s commitment to
the rule of law and fair play.
Taking on Zakari, he said, “Zakari Mohammed of
the House of Representatives talks absent-mindedly about “lack of political
will” to fight corruption.
“He should know, if he has been reading the
newspapers, that on the basis of both the report of the House of
Representatives and the Aig-Imokhuede committee reports, persons are currently
being prosecuted in the law courts by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission.”
The presidential spokesman added that the
committees in question and the probes into the petroleum sector were initiated
by Jonathan to ensure transparency in the extractive industry.
He added, “The Federal Government has not done
anything to stop or discourage the prosecution of indicted persons. We have
made the point, again and again, that in this ongoing fight against corruption,
there will be no “cover-ups”; and no “sacred cows,” and that President
Jonathan’s only interest is the people’s interest.
“The President is already taking steps to address
some of the issues raised in the reports. I had in the last 48 hours drawn
attention to the fact that the President gave clear directives on the state of
the refineries and that at least one meeting has been held since the
presentation of the Report on Refineries, to act specifically on the
recommendations made. President Jonathan has directed that he wants the
refineries fixed and steps are already being taken; deadlines have been set.”
Meanwhile, the Senate has said it will commence
the strengthening and passage of relevant legislation to ensure transparency in
the oil sector.
This is coming amid the furore generated by the
Ribadu report and lack of transparency in the sector highlighted in the reports
of different probes.
Leader of the Senate, Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN),
said on Friday that the Senate through its committees had been carrying out
oversights by way of investigations; some revelations had been made.
He said, “We have continued to expose corruption
and the weaknesses in the sector. We will need to strengthen certain
legislation that will make the industry transparent and accountable to the
public.
“But at the end of the day, it will be the duty
of the public to hold public officers accountable using the Freedom of
Information Act.”
When asked what specific laws would be
strengthened or enacted, Ndoma-Egba mentioned the expeditious consideration of
the Petroleum Industry Bill, which he said was aimed at cleaning up the
petroleum sector.
He noted that the Senate would also be looking at
the Money Laundering Act for ways of dealing with corruption in the oil sector.
According to him, the Senate would also
strengthen the Anti-Terrorism Law which has some finance components that could
be applied to unwholesome activities in the sector.
He said, “There is an improvement in our
oversight of the agencies in the oil sector, because now we are discussing
issues in the sector.
“Before now, it was seen as a no-go-area. But we
discussing them in details. That shows a relative improvement in the
legislative oversight of the sector,” he said.
Also speaking on the issue, Senate Spokesman,
Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe, denied that there was any failure in oversight, arguing
that the relevant committees had been given the responsibility to oversee the
agencies in the sector well.
He said, “We are yet to get a copy of the Ribadu
report to know exactly the recommendations and its contents. Such will guide
further response from the Senate.”
Meanwhile, the Concerned Advocates for Good
Governance has attributed the criticism of the Ribadu’s probe report by the
Presidency to the President’s interest in the 2015 presidential election.
National Coordinator of the CAGG, Mr. Olusegun
Bamgbose, described the Presidency’s position on the report as a political
gimmick and deliberate attempt to rubbish the person of Ribadu.
Bamgbose, who spoke in a telephone interview with
SUNDAY PUNCH on Friday, explained that the former EFCC czar was well
known to Nigerians as a man whose image could not be destroyed overnight.
Bamgbose said, “What we have seen is an attempt
to smear the image of Ribadu. It is a deliberate attempt to remove all
opposition from the way. It is obvious that this is all about 2015 presidency.
“He (Ribadu) is a man of integrity, who believes
in transparency and honesty. You cannot destroy his image overnight.
“Ribadu made a grave mistake by accepting to be
part of the Petroleum Special Task Force. The Ribadu we know is a trusted and
reliable person. How do you expect him to mess up when he knows that Nigerians
are watching?”
On the criticism from Okupe, the CAGG national
coordinator said Jonathan’s aide painted a wrong picture of Ribadu in order to
gain a political point.
Bamgbose urged Ribadu to clear his name
immediately and resign from the task force because the current administration
might not share in his beliefs and goals for the country.
He said Nigerians would soon realise that
government’s disapproval of the report was politically motivated.
In the wake of Janaury 2012 uprising against the
removal of fuel subsidy, the Senate had conducted investigation into the oil
and gas sector, which revealed that NNPC could not explain the schedule and
utilisation of the 450,000 crude barrels per day.
Also, the agency failed to explain the 75,000
barrels per day allocated for swarp with a foreign refinery company, just as
underpayments of royalties by oil companies and sundry financial abuses were
dictated in a similar report from a probe, which the House of Representatives
carried out in 2008.
The Senate has yet to consider the report. Just
as the NNPC faulted the Ribadu report, so it did to all Nigerian Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative reports, which chronicled abuses in the oil
sector.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, Minister of Finance,
Federal Inland Revenue Service and Accountant-General of the Federation, the
Minister of Petroleum, among others, constitute the board of NEITI.
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