The ground appears to have been prepared for
another New Year confrontation between President Goodluck Jonathan and civil
rights activists with a stiff opposition by the latter to a suit asking
Jonathan to remove totally the subsidy on fuel.
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic
Party in Anambra State, Chief Stanley Okeke, has filed a suit in
which he is asking a Federal High Court to compel the President to remove fuel
subsidy.
Okeke is also asking the court to compel
Jonathan to return to the Federation Account “such money earlier appropriated
and or approved for the payment of fuel subsidy.”
The suit was filed on December 21.
But the Save Nigeria Group said the suit
was a grand plot to deceive Nigerians, while human rights activist and Senior
Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana, vowed that civil society organisations
would oppose Okeke and what the suit represents “vehemently”.
An elder statesman, Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, also
described the suit as a “dubious diversion.”
Okeke, in the suit in which he listed the
defendants as Jonathan; the Minister of Petroleum, Diezeni Allison-Madueke; and
the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said the subsidy fund was
unjustifiable in the face of corruption in the system, perennial fuel shortage
and long queues in the country.
The only way to stop abuse of the fuel subsidy
scheme is the removal of the policy by the Federal Government, according to the
plaintiff in a 27-paragraph affidavit deposed in support of the suit.
He is also asking the court for an order
directing Okonjo-Iweala to stop further payment of fuel subsidy, submitting
that the payments had been corrupt, illegal and unlawful.
The PDP chief asked the court to determine
the following questions:
*Whether in view of the official corruption
and abuse of office inherent in the fuel subsidy regime as evidenced by the
in-going trial of certain individuals in the Federal High Court Lagos, the
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is validly competent to order the
removal and or abolish the fuel subsidy scheme;
*Whether consequent upon the perennial fuel
shortages and the attendant long queues on our roads, it would be proper and
lawful for the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to completely
remove and abolish the fuel subsidy regime;
*Whether having regards to the near
infrastructural collapse in our country, it would be proper to re-channel funds
meant fuel subsidy scheme into the building of infrastructural facilities, and;
*Whether the 2nd and 3rd defendants being
appointees of the President by not ensuring a corrupt free subsidy regime has
not failed in their principal duty to Nigerians.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of
the case.
Spokesman for the SNG, Yinka Odumakin, told
The PUNCH on Sunday night that the suit was a gameplan to increase the
prices of petroleum products in the New Year.
Odumakin said, “This is a nation of organised
grand deception. President Goodluck Jonathan said there would not be fuel
subsidy removal. What is happening is an orchestrated plan to increase fuel
price.
“The action is like a case of the witch crying
yesterday and the following day, the child is dead. Who will not know it is the
witch that killed the baby?”
He said the SNG’s last protest was not about
subsidy removal but the corruption in the system.
“The President should know that Nigerians are not
idiots. We are waiting for them,” he said.
Falana told one of our correspondents on the
telephone that, “We are going to oppose the suit vehemently and totally. We and
other civil society organisations will join the suit to oppose the plaintiff
and the interests being represented.
“The President has already declared in his
Presidential chat that he was not going to remove subsidy on fuel. It is very
clear that Nigerians are opposed to any further removal of subsidy on fuel.
“Nigerians cannot be punished for the fraud and
the criminality of smugglers that have characterised the fuel subsidy regime.
“The cases being referred to by the plaintiff are
still in court, nobody has been convicted so far.”
Braithwaite said, “The fuel subsidy itself is a
swindle on the national treasury, by which trillions of naira and billions of
dollars are stolen by those in government and their accomplices who are easily
identifiable by the hapless masses.
“However, a lawsuit in the present corrupt
environment of Nigeria is yet another dubious diversion to buy time for the
cruel and oppressive governments in Nigeria.”
Braithwaite said Nigerians had a responsibility
to hold ‘King Corruption’ accountable in the people’s own court and to recover
the loot.
Another human rights activist, Jiti Ogunye,
said the suit could be an “arrangee case” that would not be opposed by the
President and other agents of the Federal Government.
He said, “Is an order of mandamus, as a
prerogative writ in administrative or constitutional law, or an order like that
lies to compel the performance of a public duty? The answer is no. It is a
policy issue that is not justiciable in court of law.
“We hope that this is not an ‘arrangee
case’ since the defendants – the President and other agents of the Federal Government
– might not be willing to oppose the suit.
“We also hope that the Nigerian Labour
Congress and other civil society groups, who fought bitterly in January to
oppose the removal of subsidy on fuel, are watching. We encourage them to join
the suit as interested parties so that it will not be a cut-and-dry case
between the plaintiff and the Federal Government.”
No comments:
Post a Comment