The
leakage of the report of the Mallam Nuhu Ribadu-led committee that probed oil
and gas transactions covering 2002 to 2012 and which uncovered widespread
corruption and abuse of processes, is meant to embarrass the government.
The Presidency said this while
reacting to the publication of excerpts from the report by an international
news agency, Reuters, and local
media outfits on Wednesday.
The Special Adviser to the President
on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, said the excerpts from the report
could not be taken as an official document because the committee had not
formally submitted its report to the appropriate authority.
Abati said as far as the Federal
Government was concerned, the report in the public domain was suspicious.
He said if indeed the published report
was the committee’s genuine work, whoever leaked it to the press did not mean
well and was out to embarrass the government.
He said, “It is strange that
government will set up a committee, that report has not been submitted to the
authorities that set up the committee and the report will be found on the pages
of newspapers.
“The report cannot be taken as an
official document because the proper procedure is for committees set up by the
government to submit their reports to the government. In principle, this report
in the public domain is suspicious because it was not submitted to the
appropriate authority.
“If every committee set up by
government goes above the system to leak reports, there can be chaos. Whoever leaked
the report, if indeed the report is genuine, does not mean well. Whoever is
behind it is out to embarrass the government.”
When asked whether by his submission,
the Federal Government might probe the alleged leakage, Abati said the first
step was for members of the committee to come out and confirm whether it was
indeed their report.
One of our correspondents learnt that
the Senate Committees on Petroleum (Upstream) and Gas might subject the outcome
of the report to further investigation, following the gravity of claims in it.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas,
Mrs. Nkechi Nwogu, told our correspondent on the telephone on Thursday that the
committee would want to look at the report to find out the true position of
things as contained in it.
Nwogu said, “With all these
revelations, I can assure you that the Senate in particular will not want to
sweep such accusations under the carpet.
“I am sure the Senate will want to
find out things for itself.”
However, the Minister of Petroleum
Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, said there was no plan to cover up the
findings of the committee, but that another panel had been set up to look into
the contents.
Alison-Madueke had said while reacting
to Reuters enquiries that a committee had been
set up by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to look into differences in
perspective on the Ribadu committee report.
She had said, “We have set up a team
that is looking at them across the board to see if there is a difference in
opinion or a difference in perspective.
“This team will complete its work and
submit a comprehensive report in the next 10 days.”
The minister’s statement had fuelled
speculations that the new committee would remove aspects that the government
was not comfortable with from the report before making it public.
However, in a telephone interview with
one of our correspondents in Abuja on Thursday, the spokesman of the Ministry
of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Kingsley Agha, said no cover up was intended.
He
said, “You cannot cover up the report of the committee. You cannot cover up the
report of a committee made up of people of integrity. They will not agree to
that. The minister does not have anything to hide; otherwise, she would not
have set up the committee.
“It
is too early for me to speak on the report since it has not gone to the
President and I have not seen it.”
The
Acting Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation, Mr. Fidel Pepple, said a reconciliation committee was necessary.
“When
reports like this are produced, it is normal practice to reconcile and clarify
aspects of it that may not be clear,” he said.
Reuters had
on Wednesday quoted extensively from the report, which it said was
confidential.
The Reuters report was widely quoted in the local
media on Thursday.
The
146-page report, according to the international news agency, had stated that a
total of $183m (N28.73bn) in signature bonuses paid by oil companies to the
federation was missing.
The
report said that Ministers of Petroleum Resources between 2008 and 2011 handed
out seven discretionary oil licences, but that $183m in signature bonuses was
missing from the deals.
Three
of the oil licences were said to have been awarded since the current minister,
Alison-Madueke, took up her position in 2010.
Source:
Punch
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