Subsidy report: EFCC probes Yar’Adua administration

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is extending its investigation into the management of the fuel subsidy to the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.  

Our investigations in Abuja showed that as part of its probe, the commission had concluded arrangements to invite former petroleum ministers, ex-special advisers on petroleum and former general managers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.  

It was reliably gathered that the decision to interrogate the former special advisers, ministers and NNPC bosses was part of the efforts to block loopholes in the report of the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on the fuel subsidy management.  

The House report says N1.7tn was fraudulently paid.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), had in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, said the EFCC would investigate the subsidy issue properly to ensure that all loose ends were tightened.

  According to him, this will guard against a situation, where prosecution will not be done because of paucity of evidence.  

A source at the EFCC, who said that the commission was still conducting its probe, added that people, whose names came up during investigations, would be invited.  

Although he declined to mention names of people that would be quizzed, he insisted that there would be no sacred cows.  

According to him, operatives of the commission will invite anybody, whose name appears regularly in the process of investigation, irrespective of when such an individual served in the government.  

Investigations showed that operatives, including the Director of Operations of the commission, Mr. Olaolu Adegbite, had been dispatched to all oil installation and distribution facilities across the country.

It was learnt that the four teams working under the EFCC Director of Operations had interrogated many workers in sensitive distribution facilities nationwide in a bid to ensure that a thorough investigation was done on the subsidy scam.  

The EFCC source said, “I can tell you that the commission is not avoiding anybody and it is not working according to any timeline.  

“This is not about timeline; an investigation does not commence with a timeline in mind. These things are not done that way.  

“I can assure you that if in the process of investigation anybody’s name features repeatedly and prominently in the issue under investigation, such a person will be investigated.  

“We are not going to mention names but it would not be wrong to say that past ministers or GMDs, who served in the NNPC would be interrogated to clear themselves if their names come up in the process of investigation.  

“If you take a look at the way the EFCC did the investigation on the pension scam, they did not start off with a list of those to be investigated.

“It was during the investigations that the names were mentioned and those involved were summoned for interrogation  and  this  led  to other names. I think the same pattern would be repeated because this is how investigations are carried out.  

“You don’t start out by saying I am going to interrogate this person or that person. If former ministers and Group General Managers of the NNPC and other heads of parastatals in previous administrations are involved, surely they will be summoned.  

“I can tell you that the commission will do a thorough job on this issue of subsidy. Our operatives have been to all oil installations to carry out necessary investigations there. They have been talking to the people in those installations.”  

Besides Adoke, who said the Federal Government would ensure a thorough investigation into the fuel subsidy scam, two government functionaries had faulted the House report on the subsidy scam.

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, had on Tuesday said the House committee, which probed the oil subsidy, was unfair to her.

According to her, the late President Yar’Adua refused to punish his Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Rilwan Lukman, for allegedly failing to comply with his directive on the removal of kerosene subsidy in June 2009.   

Alison-Madueke said, “There was an issue on the directive of the late President in terms of the removal of kerosene subsidy, which happened apparently in June 2009 before I was appointed minister of petroleum.

“Now, under Section 6 of the Petroleum Act, the minister of petroleum may, by notice, publish in the official gazette, fix the price of petroleum products, which means that for it to actually become a law, the minister must publish that that petroleum product price has changed.    

“I do not recall and I don’t think anybody in the country recalls any such directive published in 2009. It is not something that has to be hidden because it has to, by law, be published.

“Therefore, if it is not published by law and it is not in the gazette, it is not a directive that can be legally complied with. Many months have passed and the former minister did not comply with the direct of the President.   

“The President also did not put in place any punitive measures, obviously for good reasons. He must have had very good reasons not to do that. So, it is very odd that a new administration and a new President and a new minister are being accused of flouting the law, which was given in the past to a minister and has nothing to do with us.”   

On the deduction of funds from source by the NNPC, the minister said the position of the House was subject to interpretation in line with the Appropriation Act.  

She said it was “unfair to conclude that the minister, I, did not take appropriate steps to stop the practice which, by the way, had been on before I came to office.”

 Also, the Political Adviser to the President, Alhaji Ali Gullack, had on May 2, said that the report lacked credibility, alleging that the probe was targeted at some individuals.

 He had asked, “Why did they not invite (Rilwanu) Lukman? He was the Minister of Petroleum Resources during the period of the probe. Where is Mohammed Barkindo, who was the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation at the time?

“Where are the other key actors who were at the vanguard of the subsidy regime? The House of Representatives must probe these individuals before we can truly say they are doing the right thing, otherwise the report will lack credibility. What is worth doing at all is worth doing well.”

The source, who explained the commission’s investigation, said the essence of the EFCC invitation was not to indict anybody.

He explained that not all the people that would be invited be guilty, but the commission believed that those people could assist it in its investigation.