Civil
society groups have made a call to condemned President Goodluck Jonathan for
appointing Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, the Group Managing director of Access
Bank, as chairman of the 15-man committee to verify and reconcile all
claims made in the report of a Technical Committee set up to review fuel
subsidy payments.
“That is an aberration, although it is
common with this government,” said Olanrewaju Suraju, the head of a
civil society group, the Human and Environmental Development Agenda
(HEDA).
A company owned by Mr. Imoukhuede, Ice Energy
Petroleum Trading Limited, was indicted by the House of Representatives
committee which probed the fuel subsidy payments. The company received
$2,131,166.32 (N345.3 million) in hard currency in 2011, without
importing or supplying any product, the House report stated.
Ice
Energy had failed to either appear or submit documents to the House
committee. Following the insistence by many Nigerians that the House
report be implemented, the Federal Government set up the Technical
committee headed by Mr. Imoukhuede and subsequently, the new 15-man
committee.
It’s all condemnation
The HEDA boss questioned
the propriety of Mr. Jonathan’s decision to appoint the Access bank boss
saying “how can any rational human being, a PhD holder for that matter
make such appointment.”
He described the appointment by Mr.
Jonathan and other actions and statements of the President as steps that
are taking Nigeria backward.
“We’ve never had it so bad in
Nigeria. President Jonathan is taking Nigeria to the lowest level that
we have ever had in this country,” Mr. Suraju said
The
coordinator of Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), Debo Adeniran,
believes that by appointing Mr. Imoukhuede to “investigate himself,”
the President has shown that he is not interested in the outcome of the
probe.
“Jonathan is not really interested in the probes being carried out. He does not want such probe to succeed,” Mr. Adeniran said.
The CACOL boss described Mr. Imoukhuede’s appointment as a characteristic behaviuor of the President Jonathan’s administration.
“It
is the stock-trade of this government to surround itself with indicted
persons,” Mr. Adeniran said. “Innocent people will not want to work with
a government that is constituted through a fraudulent means.”
Imoukhuede’s presence discredits report
Lagos
lawyer, Jiti Ogunye, believes that the presence of Mr. Imoukhuede on
both the technical committee and the 15-man panel has already
discredited whatever report emanates from them.
“The report is
discredited. How can somebody who has been indicted, who has not cleared
his name preside over something like that,” Mr. Ogunye stated.
The
lawyer stated that by choosing the bank boss to chair the committee,
Mr. Jonathan had shown his unwillingness to prosecute indicted officials
and companies in the fuel subsidy scam. He said it called to question
the credibility of people around the President.
“It appears this government is in short supply of credible people,” Mr. Ogunye said.
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Jonathan receives criticism for Appointing Aig-Imoukhuede to Investigate himself.
Jonathan receives criticism for Appointing Aig-Imoukhuede to Investigate himself.
NigerianEye
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Monday, July 09, 2012
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The government is not in short supply of credible people. Credible people will rather not touch the government; not even with a barge pole because it reeks of the foul odour of corruption, which emanates from the core.
ReplyDeleteIt was reported on radio news today that the government is coming out with a strategy to fight corruption! This from a government whose head resorted to all sorts of legalese to steer away from an opportunity to show that he is above board. These people are a bunch of clowns and jokers and we are yet to know the magnitude of the terrible mess we are in.
i truely agree. this is sad. Bad judgement. What was Jonathan thinking? Im not sure he was properly advised.
ReplyDeleteWe are really facing hard times politically and economically in this nation. I cant blame it all on Jonathan since people dont even want to make his tenure smooth. There are worse cancers than Jonathan in our system.
I know long ago that nothing good and just can ever come from his govt and their cohort. What pains me now is the fact that they will still go ahead to waste the little money left to still pay a so-called 15-man cttee for a review that is as good as useless. Pls let us fight for approval of independent candidacy in our election so that come 2015, we can cast our vote for human being and not the undesirable elements been imposed on us by so-called political parties in Nigeria.
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