The Presidency on Thursday rubbished the Mallam Nuhu Ribadu-led Report on Petroleum Special Task Force. It said the report was incomplete and incapable of indicting anyone.
At a press conference in Abuja, President Goodluck Jonathan’s Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, based his criticism of the report on one of its paragraphs.
Okupe said the paragraph “is an obvious DISCLAIMER (emphasis his) issued by the committee on the entire report, makes it impossible under our laws to indict or punish anyone except, and until, the Federal Government fully verifies and reconciles the facts as recommended by the committee in its submission to the government.”
According to Okupe, the offending paragraph in the report says, “Due to the time frame of the assignment, some of the data used could not be independently verified and the task force recommends that the government should conduct such necessary verifications and reconciliations.”
Okupe blamed Ribadu for the politicisation of the report. He alleged that there was a major public disinformation campaign which, he said, was calculated to overheat the polity and incite Nigerians against the President because of the report.
He said, “For instance on his Facebook page a while ago, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu remarked that he resisted overtures to make him compromise the report and rather than compromising the report, he stayed on the side of the Nigerian people.
“His claim of an overture to him to compromise the report is perfidious and false. We respectfully enjoin Mallam Nuhu Ribadu to be patriotic enough to name the proponents of this compromise.
“If Ribadu claims that to be serving on the committee he is on the side of the Nigeria people, on whose side is President Jonathan whose idea it was in the first place to set up the task Force and approved the appointment of Mallam Ribadu as chairman of the committee?”
Okupe also blamed those who, according to him, leaked the report to the foreign media before it was submitted to Jonathan. He described the people who leaked the report as unpatriotic Nigerians.
The report, which was submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan last week Friday, indicts the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation for sundry economic crimes. The report became controversial after the media highlighted some of its findings and recommendations before it was submitted to Jonathan.
At the submission of the report to the President, a member of the committee, and a former Head of Service of the Federation, Mr. Steve Oronsaye, openly disagreed with Ribadu. Orosanye alleged that the report did not enjoy the support of all members of the committee. Ribadu had countered, however, that Orosanye did not attend the meetings the committee held.
Okupe said the committee did not achieve the task assigned to it by the government when it was set up. He read from the covering note that accompanied the submitted report to buttress his point.
The covering note stated that “we have the pleasure of reporting the conclusion of the assignment given to the Petroleum Special Task Force in accordance with its Terms of Reference as laid out at the inauguration of the Task Force.”
But Okupe said this was not correct as the committee did not adhere to the terms of reference.
He said paragraph one of the Terms of Reference of the committee mandated it “to work with consultants and experts to determine and verify all petroleum upstream and downstream revenues (taxes, royalties, etc) due and payable to Federal Government of Nigeria.”
He added that the committee did not do this.
“Unfortunately and most regrettably, this paramount duty of the PRSTF committee could not be accomplished as stated in paragraph four of the covering letter signed by the Chairman, Ribadu and the Secretary of the committee,” he said.
Okupe said the committee had failed to carry out the very critical part of the assignment and instead passed on the duty of reconciliation and verification of the data to the government.
Though he described the report as incomplete, he however added that all the work needed to be done to rectify this would be done by the government. After this, he said a White Paper would be issued and its recommendations fully implemented by the government.
When contacted, Ribadu said he was out of Abuja and could not speak on the matter.
He promised to speak with The PUNCH exclusively on the matter as soon as he returns to Abuja.
PUNCH
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ReplyDeleteWe all know the antecedencies of this government which is....
ReplyDelete1. Get credible people to probe allegations of Corruption.
2. Discedit their report by either planting a mole among them (as in this case) or bribe one of them and show and video tape it (eg Lawan Panel)....
In all this, Jonathan should know that He is accountable, first to GOD who can kill and make alive and second,to History (as the worst President Nigeria has ever had).
He has NEVER shown any committment to fight against corruption....and that's why things are going wrong everywhere, including the south-south zone with a DEDICATED federal Ministry and NDDC (the home of extreme corruption) but YET, NO development.....
NOBODY and i say NOBODY fron NIGER DELTA (including my humble self) should talk about marginalisation again after GEJ's tenure as Nigerians have seen that even if a south-south man rules for 20 yrs, Niger delta people will not see development, courtersy of a lame President and Extreme corrupt antecedencies of Niger Delta people in government.
Any counter opinion?
'They said', 'he said', 'why not',bla bla bla...they are all steps towards sweeping the entire subsidy issue under d carpet. Can we ever trust ourselves in this country?
ReplyDeleteWho is Doyin Okupe when the Presiddent has not spoken? I think d Presido is surrounded by mischievious people who are bent on tarnishing Jonathan's image. You can imagine d likes of Okupe ans Abati d President's cabinet. May God help us in this country.
ReplyDeleteI think Doyin's comments is premature, and since Malam Ribadu did not mentioned the president as the person who wants him to compromise the report, why is he bothered. All Nigerians knew that this type of assignment can not be completed without patronage.
ReplyDeleteMr Walts05 , dont you think that the likes of Doyin okupe And Abati was engaged by GEJ ? and i want to believe that they are responsible to him.
ReplyDeleteWe fail to understand one thing- that the FG uses the so called (self acclaimed) credible people as a bait, after they have made so much noise only for them to dirty themselves in the mud. Nuhu Ribadu, after condemning the FG on its corrupt activities in the oil sector, was given the opportunity to make things aright but he ended up shooting himself in the foot. Whatever happened to the huge amount of money given to him and his cohorts to contract consultants and experts to verify oil revenues. WHOEVER TOURCHES A CONDEMNED OIL ULTIMATELY BECOMES FILTY, PERIOD.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous 5:01 pm, You need to understand that whenever a report is coming out to punish some certain people in this country, they usually fault it. Lawan was induced to video implication, now Ribadu report lacks merit. May God help us,
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous 6:04 AM- yes, I agree with you. But why couldn't Ribadu do a thorough research for what he was paid for? Why didn't he consult experts as specified in the terms of reference? Why didn't conclude his investigation? Is he also afraid of calling names after barking for several months? Where is Ribadu to defend himself? All these questions are yet unanswered by him (Ribadu). Talking of Mr. Integrity (Lawal), did he or did he not take bribe? Listen, let's call a spade a spade. If Lawal hadn't asked for and taken that bribe, he wouldn't had been in a mess now. They are all SHAMMERS.
ReplyDeletePple like doyin okupe will always have somethin to say even if its rubbish,ribadu claimed some pple tried to influence d committee report,wats wrong with dat? I think as far as integrity is concerned ribadu still has his own intac,tmrw we might hear dat he's collected bribe (I hope not) but for nw he's still untainted,as for rubbishin d report I wanna ask hw many probes,committees or panel reports have been implimented under jonathan? Doyin ukope said the committee was supposed to work with consultants n experts wat is d integrity of any govt appointed consultant in dis country? Wat if ribadu had met wit d consultants n found their contributuions or recomendations insincere? Doyin okupe is just a mouthpiece n I think he's just tryin to earn his salary/allowance cos talking rubbish is his stock-in-trade,jonathan will always get negative publicity with pple like him,I'm sure dis report will be swept under d c arpet just like so many others but I am sure dis sort of thing will only go on for a little while longer cos d time is coming wen pple will be made to account for their past misdeeds n am not talking abt going to heaven,dat time is at hand cos enuff will soon be enuFf in dis country
ReplyDelete