CHAIRMAN, Senate Committee on Petroleum, Downstream, Senator Magnus
Abe, said on Sunday
that the report of the committee probing fuel subsidy scheme was being
delayed by the need to ensure a thorough work at the end of the day.
Senator Abe, who stated this in Abuja, had said that the committee has received loads of documents and needed to take time to ensure a thorough scrutiny of the documents.
He said: "The Senate committee received bags and bags of documents from each of these subsidy participants and we needed to take our time to peruse these papers as dispassionately as possible.”
He also denied claims that some oil companies might be mounting pressures on him and members of the committee to influence the report.
"Personally, nobody has spoken to me and nobody has tried to influence me and I have not received any such report from any of my colleagues. In a situation such as this, there would always be speculations and there is no way you can stop these speculations,” he stated.
The senator, however, assured that his committee would submit a report that would be factual and comprehensive.
According to Senator Abe, the probe of the subsidy regime would not create enmity between the Senate and the House of Representatives, adding that the two chambers knew what they were doing.
The senator said: "But the assurance I would like to give is that we are taking our time because we want the Senate report to be as factual as possible and based exactly on what we see out of what our considerations have been and also, as much as possible look at a lot of the critical issues that made this challenge possible in the first place.
"So, in trying to be as thorough as we can, we are bound to take quite a bit of time and you must also remember that after the House of Representatives started its investigation, we had to put ours on hold and we didn't resume until the House finished everything they were doing.
"Because we didn't want to create a conflict between both chambers of the National Assembly since they had resumed on a Sunday and had taken off, we decided to hold on until they finished and that was what we did.
"So, it's only proper that since they finished first, their report would naturally come in first before ours. But we are taking our time to see that as much as possible, we do a thorough job that we ourselves would be ready to own up to what we have done.”
Senator Abe, who stated this in Abuja, had said that the committee has received loads of documents and needed to take time to ensure a thorough scrutiny of the documents.
He said: "The Senate committee received bags and bags of documents from each of these subsidy participants and we needed to take our time to peruse these papers as dispassionately as possible.”
He also denied claims that some oil companies might be mounting pressures on him and members of the committee to influence the report.
"Personally, nobody has spoken to me and nobody has tried to influence me and I have not received any such report from any of my colleagues. In a situation such as this, there would always be speculations and there is no way you can stop these speculations,” he stated.
The senator, however, assured that his committee would submit a report that would be factual and comprehensive.
According to Senator Abe, the probe of the subsidy regime would not create enmity between the Senate and the House of Representatives, adding that the two chambers knew what they were doing.
The senator said: "But the assurance I would like to give is that we are taking our time because we want the Senate report to be as factual as possible and based exactly on what we see out of what our considerations have been and also, as much as possible look at a lot of the critical issues that made this challenge possible in the first place.
"So, in trying to be as thorough as we can, we are bound to take quite a bit of time and you must also remember that after the House of Representatives started its investigation, we had to put ours on hold and we didn't resume until the House finished everything they were doing.
"Because we didn't want to create a conflict between both chambers of the National Assembly since they had resumed on a Sunday and had taken off, we decided to hold on until they finished and that was what we did.
"So, it's only proper that since they finished first, their report would naturally come in first before ours. But we are taking our time to see that as much as possible, we do a thorough job that we ourselves would be ready to own up to what we have done.”
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