Deputy Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Mr. Emeka Ihedioha, on
Wednesday came under fire from
members for allegedly shielding the
Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs.
Diezani Alison-Madueke, from
prosecution.
The uproar in the House came after
Ihedioha overruled a motion demanding
the minister’s resignation over her role
in the N1.07tn fuel subsidy scam.
The House had resumed consideration of
the fuel subsidy probe report on
Wednesday, when a member from Akwa
Ibom State, Mr. Robinson Uwak, raised a
point of order on privilege.
He drew the attention of the House to
public opinion suggesting that
lawmakers were ‘shielding’ Alison-
Madueke from prosecution.
Uwak said, “The people of my
constituency and Nigerians out there
have been bombarding me with calls
since yesterday (Tuesday).
“They have accused the House of
shielding the minister. I hereby call for
the resignation of the Minister of
Petroleum Resources.”
The lawmaker’s demand was hinged on
a key recommendation of the report,
which directed that “the management
and board of the NNPC should be
completely overhauled” for their role in
the scam.
Alison-Madueke is the chairman of the
Board of the NNPC.
Uwak’s argument was that the minister
should resign rather than being the one
to preside over the overhaul of the
NNPC.
But Ihedioha intervened by asking the
Deputy Leader of the House, Mr. Leo
Ogor, to respond to the motion.
Ogor told the House that Uwak was
jumping the gun, adding that at the
appropriate time, the House would
address the issue of the minister.
“We are guided by House rules and
decisions will be taken at the
appropriate time. We should accord
respect to due process,” he said.
He had hardly completed his statement
when lawmakers shouted him down.
They insisted that Uwak’s motion should
be heard, but the deputy speaker
abruptly overruled them.
Ihedioha’s ruling infuriated the majority
of the 245 members who attended the
session, prompting shouts of “no”, “no”,
“noooo!” He, however, ignored the
uproar.
But, the spokesman for the House, Mr.
Zakari Mohammed, denied that Ihedioha
was shielding the minister.
According to him, the House felt that the
recommendation to overhaul the NNPC
and its board had already taken care of
the minister.
“There has been a clear case of
indictment; so calling names or saying
that the minister should resign is not
necessary.
It has been taken care of by our
recommendation,” he told journalists.
The report, which recommended the
investigation and prosecution of the
affected officials, listed specific
“infractions” committed by them.
These included the payment of
N285.098bn by the NNPC to itself in
“excess of the PPPRA’s recommended
figure for 2011” and the deduction of
N310.4bn for kerosene subsidy from
crude oil proceeds.
The House cleared Gombe State
Governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo, over
the controversial payment of N999m a
total of 128 times to “unknown entities”
in 2009 as subsidy claims by the Office of
the Accountant-General of the
Federation.
Dankwambo was the AGF when the
payments were made within 24 hours
between January 12 and 13, 2009.
The total amount was put at N127.8bn.
The report of the Ad Hoc Committee on
Monitoring of the Subsidy Regime
headed by Mr. Farouk Lawan had
recommended that anti-graft agencies
should investigate the payments.
But, on Wednesday, the House amended
the recommendation to indicate that the
PPPRA and not the AG’s office should
account for the payments.
This followed fresh submissions by
Lawan, who said that the PPPRA had
owned up to making the payments.
He informed members that the Central
Bank of Nigeria, the AGF’s office and the
PPPRA, in three separate letters to the
Speaker of the House, Mr. Aminu
Tambuwal, all admitted that the PPPRA
made the payments.
Lawan also cited publications by the
PPPRA, where it listed the beneficiaries
of the N127.8bn.
He explained that the panel made its
earlier recommendation because while
the investigation was on, the AG’s office
was not forthcoming with information
on the transactions.
He, however, maintained that the panel
considered the “payments to be
irregular,” and suggested that the
searchlight be turned on the PPPRA by
anti-graft agencies.
The House adopted the amendment, an
indication that Dankwambo had been
exonerated.
Lawmakers endorsed the
recommendation to pass a bill to
‘criminalise’ extra-budgetary
expenditure by the executive arm of
government.
In particular, the House adopted the
recommendation directing anti-graft
agencies to investigate and prosecute all
officials of the Ministry of Finance, Office
of the Director-General Budget, and the
Office of the Accountant-General of the
Federation involved in extra-budgetary
spending between 2009 and 2011.
The House adopted the recommendation
on the audit firms of Akintola Williams,
Deloitte, and Olusola Adekanola &
Partners, pronouncing harsher penalties
on the firms.
In addition to being blacklisted for three
years by the Federal Ministry of Finance,
the House recommended their
prosecution for “professional negligence
and connivance” in failing to properly
audit the fuel subsidy transactions.
The House opposed the Federal
Government’s decision to appoint the
Managing Director of Access Bank, Mr.
Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, as the head of
a panel to verify subsidy claims after the
sacking the audit firms. It recommended
the engagement of an independent audit
firm to do the job.
The Minority Leader of the House, Mr.
Femi Gbajabiamila, who proposed the
amendment, described the said banker
as “a managing director, who is a close
associate of Mr. President and a member
of the economic management team.”
He argued that such a person could not
be trusted to do a through verification of
subsidy claims on behalf of Nigerians.
The lawmakers also adopted the
recommendation that the 71 firms that
got subsidy claims in 2011 without
evidence of supplying fuel should refund
N230.2bn.
However, the House merged their case
with the 17 firms that were given a
grace of two weeks on Tuesday to
appear before the probe panel.
The Chairman of the House Committee
on Rules and Business, Mr. Albert Sam-
Sokwa, explained that two of the 71
firms were also among the 17
marketers.
The 17 marketers had been slated to
refund N41.9bn to government coffers
for refusing to appear before the panel
to defend their subsidy claims.
Following their complaint of not being
given fair hearing by the committee, the
House on Tuesday gave the ad hoc
committee two weeks to listen to their
case.
The House endorsed 61 out of the 62
recommendations of the panel, with a
few amendments and introduced a new
recommendation.
The additional recommendation, which
also summarised the position of the
House on the probe, reads, “That the
resolutions of the House on the report of
the fuel subsidy regime should be served
on Mr. President, the Senate and all
anti-corruption agencies for information
and necessary actions

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