Reps Set To Begin Oil Sector Probe

Acting on the alleged rot and monumental fraud going in the petroleum and gas sector, the leadership of the House of Representatives has moved to set up an ad hoc committee that would investigate the sector with a view to correcting the problems bedeviling it.

It was gathered that the House had been inundated with several petitions and complaints from the public alleging ineptitude and deepening rot and nepotic practices, under disclosure of total production level of crude and over bloated budgetary framework within the petroleum industry.

According to a press release signed by the deputy minority leader of the House, Hon Suleiman Abdurrahman Kawu, part of the motive of the probe of the petroleum industry was to unravel the mystery of the cartel operating in the sector.

Kawu said that rising from intense consultation and unanimity of majority of members of the House and pursuant to the constitutional powers vested on the parliament as enshrined in section 88 [1] a, b sub-sections 1, 11 and in consonance with the request of major stakeholders in the industry, it had become imperative for the House to take a cursory look into the way and manner the industry was being governed.

‘‘We also have in our possession numerous documents attached in the petitions on all transactions, the companies involved and individuals accused of different degrees of breaches of laid down rules and procedures, fraud, connivances and bribery in the oil sector’’, he said.

Going further, he stated that “it therefore behoves on us, as the elected representatives of our people and in furtherance of good governance and transparency in our public institutions, so as to engender an envisaged positive goals that satisfies the yearning and expectations of our people.

‘‘I want to state unequivocally that such performance and institutional governance evaluation of the ministry and all its parastatals. Is not, and will not be for the purpose of witch hunting any targeted individual or a group of persons within the purview of such inquiry’’, he maintained.

The third term lawmaker also said that nobody would be given sacred treatment as the House would not refrain from apportioning blames or reprimanding anybody found to have been involved or contributed to the alleged rot and its possible concomitant adverse imports on our collective national interest.