House C’ttee Assures Release Of Subsidy Probe Report

The House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) says the speculations that the report on fuel subsidy probe will not see the light of day, is not true.

Chairman of the committee, Hon Farouk Lawan stated this following the expression of worry over the submission of the committee’s report long after the conclusion of the fuel subsidy probe.

Hon Lawan said the committee was still compiling the numerous petitions and information it got from members of the public while probing the subsidy issue.

His words: “Different companies and other stakeholders that participated in the petroleum subsidy thing  were invited.

In their representations, we requested them to provide us with documents and they presented a lot of statements that we want to collate. We collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Ministry of Finance, Accountant-General of the federation among others”.

The House Committee chairman on fuel subsidy probe, however, re-assured Nigerians that the report would not be doctored and would be presented to the House of Representatives and the public when it is ready.

“We represent Nigerians, we will be factual. We have made a commitment to Nigerians that whatever we are going to present will be guided by the facts before us and it will be based on our ability to interpreter those facts and if we complete it and simply present the report, I think we will not be fair to the House of Representatives,” he declared.

The Tide recalls that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had called on the National Assembly, particularly the House of Representatives to release the report of its investigation on oil subsidy probe.

A statement signed by NLC President, Mr Abdulwaheed Omar in Abuja noted that the House of Representatives was yet to release the report to the public.

Omar was quoted as saying that there had been insinuations of unprecedented pressure been mounted on the legislature from various quarters to jettison the report.

“These interest groups have been identified as oil marketers that might face sanctions based on assessment of their submissions during the probe.

Others are speculators and briefcase businessmen who will lose on cheap money and government officials who have been feeding fat on contrived leakages in the oil industry and stand indicted”.

“Our concern is that these pressures might overwhelm the report of the probe or if released might not be implemented by the executive. The rush by the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, a major actor in the removal of oil subsidy, to set up committees and taskforces to probe the oil industry, though laudable is tantamount to medicine after death”, the NLC boss said.

He, however, expressed confidence that the legislators would remain steadfast just as they did during the last probe on privatisation of public enterprises, adding that Nigerians are still surprised at the manner the power probe was truncated in spite of the troubling findings.

Shedie Okpara