The Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Bukola Saraki, has made it clear that contrary to reports in some media that the committee exonerated the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, and the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), it actually indicted them..
Senator Saraki, who is representing Kwara Central at the red chamber, in a statement today by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Bankole Omishore, maintained that as an active member of the committee, the report actually indicted the minister and the NNPC.
“Though I could not attend the last meeting of the committee, I have been very active in the investigation. Nothing significant has changed to suggest clearing anybody.
“I can say on behalf of the Committee that these media reports bear no correlation to the content of the Senate Committee report and I would urge the public to disregard it in its entirety.
“The Committee is yet to receive the report on the forensic audit and independent analysis on the subject clearly indicate we have a lot of grounds to cover in order to determine the level of culpability or otherwise of agency on the alleged non-committal.
“Therefore, to suggest any clearance for anybody at this stage is out of the question. I will further advise that the media should wait for the senate to release the details of the Committee report to the public before they jump into spurious conclusions.”
The committee, led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, a former Governor of Kaduna state, had in the report submitted on yesterday, described as untrue, allegations by the Suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, that $49.8bn was missing from the federation account.
The committee also said total crude oil liftings from January 2012 to July 2013 was $67bn and not $65bn as Sanusi had alleged.
Sanusi, had written President Goodluck Jonathan, alleging that the NNPC had failed to remit $49.8bn being part of the income it generated from sales of oil.
But the committee stated that all the agencies which made presentations had agreed after reconciliation that $47bn out of the $67bn had been credited to the Federation Account, leaving $20bn to be accounted for.
The report had added that, “The committee could not see how the figure of $49.8bn was arrived at by the CBN Governor in the first instance.
“That the CBN Governor at the first hearing had forwarded the figure of $12bn as monies to be reconciled and changed his position to $20bn at subsequent hearing.
“At the conclusion of his written submission, Sanusi posited that it could be $20bn, $12bn, $10.8bn or anything in between.” [myad]
