A civil rights organisation, Africa Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, a development agency, Justice for All and a management consultancy firm, Agama Nigeria Limited, on Wednesday in Abuja, urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and similar agencies to do “a thorough prosecution of fuel subsidy fraudsters to stem the corruption in the petroleum industry.”
They specifically stated that fighting corruption in Nigeria had been difficult because of the shoddy prosecution by the EFCC and other agencies of the Federal Government charged with the responsibility.
According to them, a thorough prosecution of perpetrators of fuel subsidy fraud would ensure that anyone found guilty is made to face the full wrath of the law.
The Executive Director of ANEEJ, Rev. David Ugolor, Senior Programme Director of J4A, Mr. Emmanuel Uche and Managing Director/ CEO of Agama Nigeria Limited, Mr. Peter Ritchie, tabled the demand during a one-day inception meeting with the theme: “Advocacy against impunity in the Oil Subsidy Regime in Nigeria.”
Ugolor said that the disparity of N175.9bn between the subsidy claims paid from the Federation Account in the 2009-2011 audit report by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the one made by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency is an eye-opener showing the likely frauds being perpetrated in the fuel subsidy management.
He said, “This project is a major effort to end impunity in the management of oil subsidy funds in Nigeria, where contractors acting in connivance with some ‘unseen persons’ in government, collect huge sums of money from government with an intention to import refined products for all Nigerians.
“The purpose is to raise awareness about the general and specific cases of corruption and malpractices in the oil and gas sector and put pressure on the government to do more to bring perpetrators to justice. The anti-graft agencies should not shirk their responsibilities but should ensure a thorough prosecution. That is the best way to fight corruption and not in the media.”
On his part, Uche advocated “a market-based approach to fighting corruption” adding that “if security agencies could give certain amount to anyone with information on a wanted person, giving a percentage of whatever money recovered to anyone providing information towards recovery of subsidy loot could be the way out.”
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