It is almost five years since the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CB), now Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi, alleged that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), failed to remit about $49.8 billion into the federation account.
Former interim chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmed Makarfi, has given reasons why the former minister of petroleum resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke, was not indicted by his Senate committee that investigated the matter, Vanguard reports.
While speaking with journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, April 4, Makarfi said there was no evidence linking the former minister to the allegation and that indicting her would have been most unfair.
He said: “We didn’t indict the minister of petroleum; we didn’t indict anyone other than the institution of the NNPC but then we said subject to the receipt of the forensic audit report. Now, some people expected us to have indicted Deziani on the allegation. She might have committed some other offences, I am not talking about that. But when you are looking at the revenue for the period we were asked to look into, the NNPC never presented any memo where she tampered with it or approved anything that had to do with it.
“Everything NNPC presented to us showed that they were the ones responsible for it. If the institution of the NNPC said that they are the one responsible for it and the ones to be held accountable for it, on what basis would you go to another individual and say no you are the one responsible for it. Nobody presented any memo, internal or otherwise, to show that for the period that we covered, she passed any instructions or memo on the revenue.”
Meanwhile, the former minister of petroleum resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, could face a jail term of between 12-15 years in prison if found guilty of fraud which reportedly occurred while she served as minister.
The personal assistant to the president on social media, Lauretta Onochie, said the former minister is also expected to name over 200 accomplice who connived, helped or participated in one of the biggest oil fraud Nigeria has ever had.
The presidential aide in a Facebook post titled, The Biggest Oil Industry Heist, Ever, cited a news report which stated that that Diezani was not prepared to go down alone as she was preparing to name all her accomplices.
