Presidency attacks ACN on Ribadu Report

The Presidency has expressed its dismay with the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) for accusing it of causing the open dissension among members of the Ribadu Committee on Petroleum Revenue.

An open disagreement between members of the Nuhu Ribadu-led Petroleum Revenue Special Taskforce over the process leading to the compilation of the report of the committee almost marred the presentation of the report to President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday.

The ACN, through its Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, issued a statement in which it accused the federal government of having an ulterior motive in setting up the Petroleum Revenue Task Force, headed by former anti-graft czar, Nuhu Ribadu, and also, of “deliberately sabotaging” the taskforce.

Reacting, Reuben Abati, the Senior Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, however, dismissed the ACN accusation, describing it as the party’s familiar pattern “aimed at rubbishing the good image of President Jonathan”.

“The ACN statement falls into a familiar pattern by the party to seek every opportunity to insult President Goodluck Jonathan, as they write glibly about what they call ‘the president’s efforts to downplay the whole disagreement and give the dissenters a soft landing’ and the president’s innermost thoughts on this issue,” he said. “The drama that has been generated around the Petroleum Revenue Taskforce Report, one of three reports that were submitted to President Jonathan on Friday, November 2, says a lot about the attempt by others to politicise everything possible and seek cheap advantages where they need not do so.

For the avoidance of doubt and for the benefit of the naysayers, the committees were set up as fact-finding and advisory bodies to generate ideas and recommendations about how best to strengthen the oil and gas sector and to further pursue the objectives of institutional integrity, transparency and accountability.”

Abati said the president is committed to the war against corruption and every step his administration has taken has been in this direction.

“The ACN claims that Steve Oronsaye and Bernard Otti’s membership of the NNPC while serving on the Ribadu committee compromises their position,” stated Abati. “It is important to note that this committee and other committees had government officials and ex-staff as members.”

“If Lai Mohammed had done his home work, he would have discovered that there were serving government officials on the Petroleum Industry Bill Taskforce, chaired by Sen. Udo Udoma, which submitted its report in June. Its technical committee was chaired by Osten Olorunsola of the Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR).”

Source: Daily Times