When the story
about the former Minister of Aviation Ms Stella Oduah on her alleged misappropriated
the Nigerian money on two bulletproof BMW cars worth N255m last year was first
published, the presidency then were issuing lots of press released trying to
cover up the alleged scandal until the House of Representatives, on December
19, 2013, endorsed the report of committee on Aviation and agreed that the
minister truly breached the 2013
Appropriation Act in the aviation ministry hence, she was indicted.
Then the House of
representative were not “parliamentary dictatorship” then as claimed by President
Jonathan on Sunday May 4th during the
Presidential Media Chat in Abuja, when another case of fraud and misappropriation
was levelled against the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-
Madueke, over the N10bn she allegedly spent on a chartered
jet.
It would be
recalled that Petroleum Resources
Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, was reported in the past that she was using
her position as the Petroleum Minister to amass to herself and her cronies. The
case of one Mr Aire and his company, Solid 21
Incorporated, which dealt strictly in jewellery and wristwatches, who did not ‘meet any of
the criteria spelt out in the guidelines for prospective crude oil lifters.
But, between July 9 and July, 2010, he incorporated two companies, Siseno Oil
Nigeria Limited, as well as Caligeria Oil Limited. Both companies were to
undertake the businesses of petroleum products sales and distribution’.
‘A month after
the no-address companies were incorporated, the minister reportedly directed
the Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD), the NNPC division in charge of crude
oil marketing, to approve crude oil lifting contracts to them to lift 60,000
barrels of crude per day. That was done in clear violation of laid down
guidelines requiring companies interested
in lifting
Nigerian crude to be bona fide end users, with established reputation as large
volume traders with global network for at least three years.
In another report
also published by NEXT, and
entitled “Oil minister in N2.2b bribery scandal”, the minister’s name was
mentioned in an elaborate scam which forced marketers to pay huge bribes in
exchange for petroleum products import license by the PPPRA. There was also the
allegation that she unilaterally assigned prospecting rights in some
state-owned lucrative blocks to some briefcase companies without open and
competitive bidding.’
It would also be
recalled that Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the recently suspended governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, had once stated
openly that she was guilty of misappropriating funds but her unauthorized
action had gone unpunished.
“For instance the Minister of Petroleum spoke
on live Television before the National Assembly admitting that she spent $3.5
billion of tax payers’ money on kerosene subsidy without budgetary approval,
but nothing was done,” he said
Indeed, very
serious corruption allegations have swirled around the minister in the past year, Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court,
Abuja on Tuesday,29th April, denied claims by the House of Representatives that he issued an order stopping
investigations into the allegations that Petroleum Resources Minister,
Diezani Alison-Madueke, spent N10bn to charter a private jet for her
trips in the last two years
However, what really give me concern is the way our President was trying to cover-up for the minister, while chat with the media yesterday, the President said, “The minister of
petroleum has not gone to court to stop them.’’ Who are them? Is Mr. President
now calling the representatives of 175 million- Nigerian fools? Or is it an
offence to ask how our money are been spent? Who are the faceless organisations
that question the rationale for the probe? Who are fooling who here?
The president went further to say that: “The information we have is that some
organisations have questioned the rationale for the probe. But what
I want you to know is that the parliament is made up of politicians. And if you
have been following the issue especially in the House, you will know that there
is more than politics than work.”
The President asked the House to rid itself of
what he described as “parliamentary dictatorship”
‘’There is no
human being on earth that has not made mistakes. Presidents all over the world
are being attacked from the strongest country to the weakest country. But you
cannot satisfy everybody. People come after you from different angles. Some
people will just set up a magazine or newspaper because they want to face one
human being,” he claimed.
“I am not trying to protect anybody. Some people talk
about jet or no jet. The Ministry of Petroleum Resources is one ministry that
because of its activities people pay attention to it.
“The arrangement they have now whether it is costlier
than what they used to have, we will find out. We are looking into it. But when
somebody wakes up and says the ministry of petroleum is making use of a jet,
the ministry of petroleum has always been using jets. Some government
functionaries, you can go to the parliament, they have their own. Whether they
hire or not, I don’t know. Only the judiciary is always mindful of what
they do.”
On this note, i will like to say that no country can
progress when a public official spends the country money recklessly most
of the time and the powers that be do the covering up.
.
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