Fuel Subsidy Scam: Senate Charges EFCC To Go After Cartel

ABUJA, January 17, (THEWILL) - The Senate on Tuesday threw its weight behind the current anti-corruption drive in the oil sector as it charged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) to prosecute any person found to have received fraudulent payments from the fuel subsidy fund.

The Senate also tasked the anti-graft agency to intensify the search for the click that ripped off the nation through the mismanagement of the oil subsidy fund.
 
On Monday, detectives attached to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) raided the offices of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Abuja, as it commenced its investigations into subsidy payments made by the departments.

The Senate nonetheless reassured Nigerians that the ongoing investigation by its joint committee into N1.3trn fuel subsidy will be in the interest of Nigerians, adding that its report would be made available to EFCC and other relevant agencies to assist them in their investigations and eventual prosecution of culprits.
 
Speaking with newsmen after Tuesday’s plenary, Senate spokesman and Chairman of Information, Media and Public Affairs, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe declared that the crisis facing the nation today was caused by the activities of saboteurs in the oil sector.
 
While commending the President Goodluck Jonathan, the leadership of the Senate and organized labour for their efforts in calling off of the strikes, Sen. Abaribe also assured that recommendations reached between the Belgore committee and the organized Labour will be faithfully implemented.
 
"It is necessary to mention here that the Senate as an institution of government has commenced an investigation into the management of fuel subsidy and so many things were revealed in the investigation. And it led to the naming of all those who benefitted from the oil subsidy scam as we have known it now and we call on the EFCC to ensure that no one is spared because those are the people that have brought us to this avoidable hardship. And we think that those saboteurs should be brought to book.
 
The Senate is fully behind it because the Senate started this investigation. And the Senate is also very willing to go all out to make sure that Nigeria is a country where everybody's interest is fully protected," he said.
 
Senator Abaribe however, debunked insinuations that the Senate did not wade into the faceoff between labour and government "frontally."
 
"The role of the Senate was very pivotal to the resolution of the crisis. Usually an arbiter does not take centre stage. Senate has to take the responsibility of making sure that both sides in the dispute were brought together. And the only way you can bring both sides together is that you are not supposed to take sides prior to the time you are going to do negotiation. That is why it seemed as if the senate did not come out frontally. But I think that events as at today has shown that the Senate took the best possible approach and helped to douse an imminent crisis that would have engulfed our nation or put us in a situation that would have been very untenable," he added.