By Haruna Salami
The Senate on Tuesday stated its preparedness to probe the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over $3.8 billion dollars
allegedly shrouded in secrecy by the corporation.
Consequently, the Senate has set up an ad-hoc committee headed by Senate leader, Ahmed Lawan to carry out the investigation and submit it report within a week for further legislative action.
The resolution by the Senate to probe the NNPC followed an order raised by Senator Biodun Olujimi, representing Ekiti South senatorial district. Olujimi, in her presentation, noted that the alleged fund is being managed quietly without appropriation.
She said, “right now, the fund is being managed quietly without appropriation of any known law. Nobody is talking about us – Nigeria, paying subsidy. But we know that subsidy is being paid in one form or another but being covered in recovery rather than subsidy.”
The lawmaker further noted that the fund has long been in the custody of the NNPC management without being couched well before the public.
Olujimi said, “the NNPC management should come to explain what the money has been used for and whether or not it has been used in paying subsidy.
“What happened is that rather than the executive talk about subsidy, they talk about subsidy recovery. That meant that they were going to end subsidy and pay people to stop subsidy. But the fund is not appropriated. Is just a lump sum within the management of NNPC. And we believe that it is not good for it to be shrouded in this kind of secrecy.”
Calling on her colleagues to ask questions, the lawmaker insisted that there was need for the Senate to call everybody involved, “so that we can sit down together and, ask questions – How are you managing this fund, what have you been using this fund for, have you being subsidising?
“This is because reports say that we have been subsidising. And right now the subsidy level is so high that if it is added to what we had, pump price will be N210 per litre.
“And this is being done behind the scenes. It shouldn’t be so. This is because it is money belonging to Nigerians and, it must be appropriated”.
Olujimi even recalled that when the 2018 budget was passed, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki in his final remarks had said that “the National Assembly is expecting the executive to present a budget of subsidy because it is happening.
“It is just that it is shrouded in secrecy. And that they should present a proper budget so that we can all know that subsidy is still on even if it is at a lower level. But nobody should be lied to by saying there is no subsidy.”
When asked if other stakeholders were also involved, Olujimi said, “It is only NNPC that is involved because it is a downstream issue.
“NNPC should be able to come to NASS and say, yes, this is what it is. This is what we have been doing. We can’t afford to be transparent about it. Are you paying subsidy? Yes or No.
“What is the recovery about? Because it is like a slush fund. You are not couching it well and, you now make it look like a good money when it is really bad money.
“What is it being used for? How is it being used? Are we really paying subsidy? This is because the executive does not want us to know that we are still paying subsidy.
“So if we are paying subsidy, to whom are we paying subsidy? For what are we paying the subsidy? How does it affect the economy? Is it going to crash the economy because by the report, if we are not careful, it will crash the economy, once again. And we don’t want that.”
Meanwhile, the Senate yesterday passed a total of N53,237,777,707 for security agencies for the conduct of 2019 general elections.
Recall that the Senate had last week passed the sum of N189 billion for Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of the election.
The total sum passed by the Senate for INEC and the security agencies for the 2019 elections is N242,245,050,100.
On the security, while the police took the chuck of the money, it was followed by Department of State Services (DSS) and Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA)
The breakdown of the budget presented before the lawmakers by the Appropriation Committee headed by Senator Danjuma Goje, shows that N27,341,317,433 is giving to Police, DSS N10,213,282,455, ONSA N9,481,500,000, Civil Defence N3,573,534,500, and Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS) N2,628,143,320.
There is a slight difference between the budget President Muhammadu Buhari submitted to the National Assembly for the security and what the Senate eventually passed.
While Buhari submitted a budget of N4.281 billion for NSA, the Senate increased it to N9.481 billion, DSS budget of N12.213 billion was reduced to N10.213 billion and Police budget of N30.541 billion was also reduced to N27.341 billion. Others were not tampered with.