Reps pledge prompt prosecution of fuel subsidy racketeers

CHAIRMAN House of Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Zakari Mohammed, has promised prompt prosecution of individuals or group of people involved in fuel racketeering in the subsidy regime.

Besides, he assured that Nigerians would soon know the whereabouts of the ‘missing’ 24 million litres of petrol reportedly unaccounted for in the subsidy system.

Mohammed, who spoke over the weekend in Ilorin, Kwara State said the current Legislative Assembly owed Nigerians the duty to expose the cartel behind alleged fraudulent transactions in the nation’s oil sector.

The lawmaker, who represents the Baruten/Kaiama Federal Constituency of Kwara State, disclosed how some people involved in the shady deals had been mounting pressures on his House to jettison the probe, but assured that it would not yield ground.

Mohammed said: “It is possible to have proper accounting system in Nigerian oil sector. Now that deregulation of the sector has commenced, the silence culture on probity and accountability should be over.

“When we came in, we saw a need to reduce the cost of governance as our own way of sacrifice. We have therefore decided that wastages must be halted in the oil sector. In the year 2010, we used half a trillion naira on subsidy that went into the pockets of individuals. We must curb the wastage to justify the recent deregulation. So only those who had carried out proper transactions in the nation’s oil sector would be free from our investigations.” .

He added: “It has come to our knowledge that 24 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) could not be accounted for. We must probe this. This probe, we can assure Nigerians, would not go the way of past probes that failed to see the light of the day.”

Mohammed also urged members of the Boko Haram sect to reveal their identities as a prelude to a dialogue with them even as he commended President Goodluck Jonathan for his approach to the nation’s current security challenges.

Stating that there existed a yawning gap in the standard of living between the governed and those in government, Mohammed canvassed a redistribution of wealth in the country, adding that this would end all militant agitation in Nigeria.

Deploring the absence of entry point in the nation’s media industry, the lawmaker disclosed that he would soon sponsor a media-related bill that would cover several anomalous features of the profession in the country.