PPPRA Debunks Alleged ICPC Probe

The Petroleum Products
Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has dismissed allegations that the ICPC was investigating the agency over some alleged infractions.
Reacting to the allegation made by an online publication, the Executive Secretary of the PPPRA, Mr Reginald Stanley, described the allegation as farce, malicious and a smear campaign.
The Executive Secretary, who spoke to reporters in Abuja on Sunday on the activities of the PPPRA, dismissed the allegations as cheap blackmail by fifth columnists, working to undermine the transparency regime in the PPPRA.
“PPPRA hereby unequivocally states that the news making the rounds is a figment of the imagination of the people peddling it.
“The agency is not under any investigation whatsoever by the ICPC or any anti-corruption agency for that matter,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quotes him as saying.
“The public is hereby assured that the allegations in the publications are completely false and a violation of the code of ethics of journalism, which enjoins journalists to refrain from publishing inaccurate and misleading information.
“Nigerians are aware that the Federal Government through the Minister of Petroleum Resources has put measures in place that consistently prevented corruption in the downstream in recent years.
“This has enabled government to save a whopping N409 billion in subsidy claims in 2012 alone from reduction in volume from 60.25 million litres a day in 2011 to 39.66 million litres a day in 2012.
“We achieved up to 67 per cent reduction in the number of participants in the subsidy scheme, ensuring that only owners of downstream facilities participated in the scheme.
“This resulted to a reduction from 128 marketers in 2011 to 38 marketers in 2012.
“We also took steps to boost the Local Content Initiative of government by encouraging indigenous participation in downstream activities and this has attracted investments to the Nigerian economy in excess of N60 billion in the past 18 months.