Senate said yesterday that the
Minister of Petroleum Resources,
Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke “has
something to hide” over her alleged
persistent refusal to honour
invitations from its Ad-Hoc
Committee on the Subsidy
Reinvestment and Empowerment
Programme (SURE-P). This is even
as there are indications that President
Goodluck Jonathan may present the
2014 budget to the National
Assembly tomorrow.
Chairman of the committee and
Deputy Senate Leader, Abdul Ningi,
told newsmen yesterday that the
minister has allegedly turned down
three invitations to appear before the
panel to explain alleged
discrepancies in the N834.331 billion
received from the N32 deducted in
the 25 billion litres of petrol fuel sold
between January 2012 and
September 2013.
The committee disclosed that from
its investigations, only N300 billion
has so far been paid out to SURE-P.
At the sitting on November 5, the
committee concluded that the CBN
and the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) have a case to
answer over the alleged fraud in the
remittances to SURE-P.
A member of the committee, Senator
Kabiru Marafa, had claimed that his
colleagues observed that over N834
billion ought to have accrued to the
nation for the SURE – P if N32.00
was removed from the 770, 695, 645
litres of fuel sold in 21 months.
He said the figure was contained in
an October 9 letter from the Ministry
on Petroleum Resources addressed to
the committee and signed by its
Director of Finance and Accounts, Mr.
Salmanu Faskari. Speaking
yesterday, Senator Ningi bemoaned a
situation where an appointee of
government would routinely shun
invitations from the Senate.
At the resumed sitting of the
committee yesterday, Senator Ningi
noted that the minister’s appearance
scheduled for 1pm, was re-scheduled
till 2:17 pm, hoping that she would
honour the invitation.
He said that no matter what it takes,
the committee would ensure that the
minister appears before the
committee to explain how the
accrued funds have been expended.
His words: “This is exactly more than
one and half hours after the
scheduled time for the meeting. I
thought we have waited patiently.
“I think that the Ministry of Petroleum
Resources is the custodian of the
SURE-P and we feel that they have
things to hide and we strongly believe
that documentation that we have
received from the ministry
embarrasses us as a committee and
it should embarrass the ministry as
well because simple statistics and
arithmetic is found all through their
presentation.
“There are various contradictions in
the statistics provided and when we
first sat here, we said this
programme has not been run
transparently enough, for Nigerians to
believe that this is the programme
that comes out of fewer democratic
dividends.
Ningi told bemused committee
members that the matter had earlier
been reported to Senate President
David Mark who promised to take up
the matter with President Goodluck
Jonathan,
“I, as the Chairman of this committee,
cannot outrightly say that this is what
will happen; neither can the
committee say this is what would
happen. We invited the minister
severally to appear; she didn’t appear
and neither did she send a
representative. We took the matter to
the leadership of the Senate and the
leadership, in fact, the President of
the Senate assured us that he would
take this matter to the President and
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed
Forces, who in fact, hired the
minister.
Meanwhile, President Jonathan is
expected to present the N4.77 trillion
2014 budget to the National
Assembly tomorrow.
Senator Ningi disclosed this to
newsmen at the meeting of the
committee yesterday.
http://sunnewsonline.com/new/national/missing-sure-ps-n534bn-deziani-something-hide-senate/

Hmmmm....