CNPP faults Senate’s subsidy probe

The Conferenceof Nigeria Political Parties has dismissed the probe of the oil industry by the Senate as diversionary and a ploy to discredit the mind boggling revelations made during a just-concluded and similar probe by the House of Representatives.
A statement by CNPP Chairman, Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, and Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu. said the move by the Senate has now confirmed the fear of Nigerians that nothing concrete would come out of the National Assembly in terms of fighting corruption. given its antecedents with the power sector probe that ended as a made for television home entertainment instead of genuinely exposing corruption.

The statement said: “The Federal Lawmakers seemed to have forgotten so soon that one of the planks of those who protested against removal of fuel subsidy is the wanton waste that is replicated at all levels of government often reflected in the duplication of offices and activities.
“The House of Representatives has done enough in exposing those who looted the country through a corrupt subsidy administration and any gap in the public hearing could have been easily filled by the anti-corruption agencies that have the responsibility for prosecution.
“The manner the Senate delved into the probe when it had not successfully queried the Petroleum Ministry and its key players raises suspicion that the lawmakers must dispel as Nigerians are now aware of the huge amount of slush fund available to operators of that industry.
“It is also condemnable that the Senate sits by and watches the Minister of Petroleum, Dizeani Allison-Madueke. setting up series of committees when she should have waited for the body with the statutory power of oversight to do so.
“A genuine probe by the Senate would have first frozen further activities in that sector.”
The conference said instead of playing catch up with the House, the Senate would do well to stop its ongoing farce and rather work out ways of compelling the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission to immediately prosecute those indicted bythe House probe.
It said: “The Senate must also join the House to demand that the leadership of the oil industry as embodied by the Petroleum Minister, GMD of NNPC and the Executive Secretary ofPPPRA step down from office while the sector is sanitised and the EFCC carries out its investigations on the heels of the public hearing of the House ofRepresentatives.”
The CNPP warned that the Senate would again force Nigerians to take to the streets to demand an end to corruption and for the leadership of the Petroleum Ministry and its agencies to step aside for a transparent investigation.