N1.07t subsidy: Ahmadu Ali, others to face trial
By Victor Oluwasegun and Dele Anofi, Abuja 1 hour ago
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Ahmadu Ali, -NNPC told to refund N310b -House clears Synopsis, Zenon -New chance for 17 firms


FORMER Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) chairman and executive secretaries (2009-2011) were told yesterday to get set for trial over the N1.07 trillion subsidy scandal.

They will be investigated/prosecuted by anti-corruption agencies, the House of Representatives said.

Former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Ahmadu Ali was the agency’s chairman during the period. The former PPPRA executive secretaries are: Mr. A Ibikunle (August 2009 to February 2011) and Mr. Goddy Egbuji (February 2011 to August 2011).

The House also said the Auditor-General of the Federation should audit the account of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to ascertain its solvency and report back to the House Committee on Public Accounts within three months.

Also approved is the refund of the 2011 subsidy funds collected by the NNPC. This was in spite of a letter by the corporation to the House leadership, stating that the funds were meant to offset backlogs of 2010.

In all, 35 of the 62 recommendations of the Farouk Lawan-headed House Committee on Fuel Subsidy regime were accepted.

Recommendation (xiii) as adopted states: “That the Executive secretaries of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) who were the accounting officers, and under whose watch those abuses were perpetrated that led to the government losing billions of naira should be held liable. Therefore, we strongly recommend that those who served as Executive secretaries of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Authority (PPPRA) from January 2009 to October 2011 should be further investigated/prosecuted by relevant anti-corruption agencies. This should also include GM Field Services, ACDO/Supervisor-Ullage Team 1, and ACDO Supervisor-Ullage Team 2 within the same period, for their roles in the management of the Ullaging under the subsidy scheme.

The amended recommendation (xvi) reads: “That the chairman of the Board of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) from 2009-2011 and the entire members of the board during the period should be investigated and prosecuted and their decision which opened a floodgate for the bazaar is condemned in the strongest form.”

Other recommendations adopted by the House are as follows: (xi); ”That the relevant anti-corruption agencies should carry out the due diligence investigation to determine the total demurrage payment and outstanding incurred by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for the period 2009-2011.

(xii) “That under the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF) scheme, importers, especially Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), should be mandated to patronise Nigerian flagged vessels, provided they produce the standard safety and sea-worthiness certificates in tune with international best practice.

(xiii) that all payments which the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) made to itself from the Petroleum Support Fund (PSF) account in excess of the approved administrative charges which were due to it under the Template should be recovered and paid back into the fund. The officials involved in the infraction should be further investigated/prosecuted by the relevant anti-corruption agencies. These confirmed illegal payments were N156.455 billion in 2009 and N155.824 billion in 2010, a total sum of N312. 279 billion.

Speaker Aminu Tambuwal warned that there are no sacred cows in the oil sector that is too big for the law to deal with.

Tambuwal, who spoke just before the House went into the committee of the Whole to consider the report, hoped the executive would implement the report as adopted by the House.

But, 17 oil marketers got a reprieve.

They were given two weeks to appear before the panel to state their positions on various allegations levelled against them.

The companies are: Mut-Has Petroleum Ltd, Nepal Oil and Gas Service, Oilbath Nigeria, Techno Oil Ltd, Somerset Energy Services, Stonebridge Oil Ltd, Mobil Oil Nigeria, AX Energy Limited, CAH Resources Association Limited, Crust Energy Limited, Fresh Synergy Limited and Ibafon Oil Limited.

Others are: Lottoj Oil and Gas Limited, Oakfield Synergy Network Limited, Petro Trade Energy Limited, Prudent Energy & Service Limited and Rocky Energy Limited.

Before the new lease of life granted the oil companies, they were asked to refund N41.9 billion to government coffers.

Two firms – Zenon Petroleum & Gas Limited and Synopsis Enterprises Limited were exonerated by Lawan, who told the House the companies were listed in error.

According to him, both firms should not have been on the list of those who partook in forex.

They did not participate in the PSF, Farouk told the House.

House spokesman Zakari Mohammed while speaking with reporters yesterday on the issue said:

“The truth of the matter is that we want to give them a fair hearing. We don’t want a situation where they‘ll take us to court. People shouldn’t take us to court for this kind of row; we should avoid it.

“If 17 companies say they were not invited or they did not get invited, or that we did not exhaust our legislative processes, the onus lies on us to give them fair hearing so that nobody rubbishes this report in the court of law.

“But in the court of people’s opinion, people know that these 17 companies are being economical with the truth. At the same time, we are giving them two weeks to come up and defend themselves.

“As far as we’re concerned, it does not change the decimal. It is still as constant as ever. The only thing is that we just want to avoid any avoidable pitfall. In two weeks, those two companies will be invited, and whatever the findings are like, it will come out as a supplementary report.”

The road to a new lease of life for the oil company began when half way into the deliberations, a member, Osai Osai, noted that it was imperative to give them an opportunity to present their cases to the House.

Tobi Ukechukwu (PDP Enugu) moved a motion that the 17 companies be allowed to present their case.

The House told the Executive that there should be no sacred cows that cannot be touched by the long arms of the law and that the Executive should fish out all those indicted by the committee.

It, however, added another resolution - that NNPC should refund the subsidy deduction made for fuel subsidy in 2011. The members based their decision on the fact that the committee had said in its report that the 445, 000 bpd that the NNPC receives is more than sufficient for the country and that there is no need for subsidy.

In insisting that the NNPC should refund the deductions, the House pointed out that the report shows that the NNPC has been deducting far beyond what the PPPRA recommended and thus should refund the deductions.

The House was filled to capacity yesterday as it deliberated on the report and adopted most of the recommendations , The Deputy Speaker said that the NNPC sent a letter to the House, stating its position, Farouk was asked to comment

According to Farouk, the letter states that the deductions made in 2011 for subsidy payments were for subsidy payments meant for 2010.

Tambuwal, in a speech which won him a standing ovation, praised the committee’s members “for their courage, dedication and professionalism. They were given a crucial assignment and they handled it with the integrity and patriotism it deserved.”

He declared that the oil sector as not “a secret society” nor “a sacred cow”.

The Speaker said the probe raised so much dust from certain segments of the polity “such that it became clear that the intention was to frustrate it”.

His words: “For those who regard the oil sector as a secret society or sacred cow, I wish to state without equivocation that it is not. All public agencies in the oil sector are the creation of Acts of the National Assembly and this Honourable House has no powers to legislate for the creation of secret societies.

“Similarly, all private sector corporate bodies operating in the sector are the creation of the Corporate Affairs Commission and that Commission also is not vested with any powers to incorporate secret societies. Let it, therefore, be known that in our drive to sanitise the polity, there are no sacred cows and we do not intend to discover any.”

The Speaker urged members to “to look at the report dispassionately”. He went on: “Nigerians are watching us very closely and history will judge what we do here today.

“Be fair in your comments and let aside all primordial sentiments so that we can do justice to this important document.

“Let me also remind you that we are fighting against entrenched interests whose infectious greed has decimated our people. Therefore, be mindful that they will fight back, and they do fight dirty.

“I have heard all kinds of insinuations, including the one about anti-graft agencies waiting for a ‘harmonised version’ of this report before taking any action. Let me quickly say here that this is at best an excuse that can not stand. After all, the same agencies accept and investigate petitions from individuals; how much more resolutions of this House,

“There will be no such document. So, they should just go ahead and do their job and where they find any person or body culpable, they should proceed in accordance with the law.

“Our only interest here is to mitigate the suffering of Nigerians by showing how the subsidy regime has been hijacked for the benefit of a few.

“At the end of our deliberations we hope that the executive arm will act upon the resolutions of this House and bring more transparency to bear on the system.”

Of the 62 recommendations in the report, members considered 35 yesterday. The consideration of the report continues today.

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