Send Diezani on compulsory leave, ACN tells Jonathan

Posted by admin Latest Politics, Women Politics Thursday, January 19th, 2012

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to remove the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke from office to ensure transparent investigation of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which will convince Nigerians that he is serious about the fight against corruption in the sector.

Leaders of the party gave the admonition at a press conference at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja. National Secretary of the party, Senator Lawan Shuaib, who addressed journalists noted that the investigation of the ministry by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) could be jeopardised if Mrs. Diezani retained her seat.

“Mr. President also said the EFCC will investigate the NNPC and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources while the same minister being accused of all these malfeasance remains on her seat. How can this be possible? Honesty in dishonesty? This clearly fits to the anecdotal saying of asking the “thief to investigate the theft!” Where on earth is this done? It violates basic principles of investigative justice. The government may as well save the nation the trouble.

Mr. President should send the minister of petroleum resources on compulsory leave and appoint a Judicial Commission of Inquiry headed by a retired justice of the Supreme Court and manned by credible Nigerian’s across stakeholders to properly dig into all forms of infractions and abuse of due process in the petroleum ministry. The National Assembly Public Accounts Committee should immediately commence investigation into the KPMG report and at the same time investigate who authorised the payment of the so-called subsidy that rose from N240 billion to over N1.4 trillion in the 2011 budget without appropriation.”

The ACN also alleged that what the Federal Government claimed to be subsidy fund was actually public fund funneled into the presidential campaign of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate at the last April poll, President Goodluck Jonathan. “In the last few days the data and information exhumed from the heavily guarded government records have since shown the colossal amount of embezzlement, rip-off and wastage that has been the hallmark of the PDP government.

That there was never any subsidy at all, better still, that the fraud called “subsidy” was simply a smoke screen for enriching cronies, which in an election year trippled to finance the presidential election has now all come out in the open. Nigerians are being asked, in the name of withdrawal of fuel “subsidy”, to pay for the extravagant and wasteful presidential election campaigns last year.

This data, which is still emerging, has raised several questions. How did a N240 billion subsidy in the 2011 budget grow astronomically to N1.3 trillion by October 2011 (reaching about N1.6 trillion by December 2011).

-Sunwp_posts