FAROUK LAWAN GOT IT WRONG

Barely few weeks ago when the then President Olusegun Obasanjo described the House of Representatives members as thieves and armed robbers which elicited the house into pandemonium of mega sort.Many Political observers believed that OBJ was a political joker but mean something relevant.The sudden Oil fuel subsidy removal by President Goodluck Jonathan early this January enveloped the entire country with multiple protests from different civil society groups and Nigerian Labour Congress(NLC) to reverse the government stand on fuel price. Precisely ,Hon Farouk Lawan,Chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Ad hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy Management revealed that N1.692 trillion was paid as subsidy last year. The committee headed by Hon . Farouk Lawan indicted 69 oil marketers who have benefited illegally from oil subsidy funds.The 69 oil marketers were expected to paid N241,247 billion to government.

Since 1999 till date, the National Assembly has embarked on probes with no fruition rather than allegations with no basis of investigation. It is sad that the Farouk Lawan- led committee could callously publish oil marketers who he claimed that were oil subsidy beneficiaries while some majors were not on the list.Considering the probe political gimmicks indicated that some of the oil marketers whose names were on lists did not participate in the oil subsidy removal beneficiaries.Mr so-called integrity got it wrong in his recommendations by unlawfully taming oil marketers as cabals and nothing else The committee report is mendacious and fictitious to convince Nigerians that the committee is actually working until the bubble burst.

For Mr Femi Otedola the chairman of Zenon oil to expose the $620,000 bribery scandal whom the Hon. Farouk Lawan collected from him in order for his name not to be listed which indicated that some of the oil marketers were innocent of the oil subsidy allegations being masterminded by the committee to put fear on the oil marketers to bribe them.Most of the probes are mere political noise making to convince Nigerians that the National Assembly is actually on the top of the game in terms of corruption.

Again the Farouk Lawan recommendations should be discarded in due time.High profile corruption is well pronounced in National Assembly in recent times. All those behind Fuel Subsidy removal were part and parcel of corruption which those listed oil marketers were innocent of the crime. The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to together with the NNPC regulated the price of fuel across the country through the Premiun Motor Spirit(PMS). The committee report must be questioned how it got it analysis on oil marketers that claimed to have received oil subsidy funds without importing fuel into the country rather divert it to other neighboring countries.

Everything that has been revealed so far shows that what transpired was largely a business transaction in which US dollars was the language.It is obvious that some of the oil marketers have been wrongly indicted by the unpredictable committee whose integrity is questionable to the core.At this point we may not all agree on what is presently going on but Farouk Lawan must tell Nigerians while he innocently indicted some oil marketers for not taken part in his secret gratification which is now a public notice. He must account for the money collected so far.These oil marketers have helped in recent time past to reduce fuel scarcity in Nigeria and nothing else. It is time for Farouk Lawan to face his own music of corruption and unlawfully indicting oil marketers as cabals.GODDAY ODIDI. PUBLIC AFFAIRS ANALYST.08058124798

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Articles by Godday Odidi