12—Vanguard, THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013
N-Assembly to reconsider NNPC's $1.5bn loan probe
Disputed oil wells: Rivers pulls out of peace talk with Bayelsa ...accuses FG of bias BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA
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ENAGOA—RIVERS State Government, yesterday, pulled out of the peace talk with Bayelsa State Government aimed at resolving the disputed oil wells on the border towns of Oluasiri and Kula communities of the two states. Rivers State Deputy Governor, Engr. Tele Ikuru, who led the state delegation, accused Federal Government agencies, including National Boundary Commission, NBC, of bias and gave three conditions for acceptable resolution of the conflict. Engr. Ikuru, who spoke, yesterday, in Yenagoa at the joint meeting of officials of the Bayelsa/Rivers Interstate Boundary, said though the state had approached a court of law and procured reasonable judgment, the decision of NBC and AccountantGeneral of the Federation to release the revenue proceeds from the oil wells to Bayelsa, was a clear case of injustice. Ikuru argued that to continue to allow Bayelsa State take full benefit of the revenue proceeds from the disputed wells while NBC was in the middle of the delineation exercise, was unjust and unacceptable to the state.
BY SONI DANIEL, Regional Editor, North
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HERE were indica tions last night that the National Assembly might back down on its tough stance to deal with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, for allegedly obtaining a loan of $1.5 billion from various banks to pay its debts without the approval of the legislature. Findings by Vanguard revealed that the committee raised by the House of Representatives to probe the matter and report back to the lower chambers within two weeks had decided to soft pedal on the matter following uncertainty over whether the oil corporation had actually drawn down the funds, which were meant to offset the debts owed major suppliers of refined products to the country. According to unverified reports, the money was paid by NNPC to the oil suppliers towards the end of the last year to avoid serious repercussions but the National Assembly members said they have found out that the money was yet to be spent. It was gathered that as a result of the discovery that the funds had not yet been drawn down, the House of Representatives Committee on Loans and Debts, Justice, Petroleum Downstream and Upstream, which was mandated to probe the matter, had to call off its public hearing slated for Tuesday. The hearing, which was to enable members of the public and top officials of NNPC to speak up on what they knew about the controversial loan package, was surreptitiously cancelled when it dawned on members that the investigation would amount to a wild goose chase. A member of the House of Representatives, who spoke to Vanguard in confidence, pointed out that the members might have been misled into assuming that the oil corporation committed an infraction by taking the loan without the consent of the National Assembly.
He said: “Under the circumstances, the commitment to speedy and transparent resolution of this potentially volatile and protracted boundary issue cannot be guaranteed. “Rivers State has strongly argued that the most effective and transparent way to make all parties genuinely focused on the settlement bid was the immediate intervention of the Federal Government by directing the payment of all revenue proceeds from the disputed oil wells into an Escrow Account under the Accountant General of the Fed-
eration. “To direct that all withdrawals hitherto made from and given to Bayelsa from the erstwhile Escrow Account maintained by the two state governments be returned; to direct the return to status quo with regard to the 11th Edition of the Administrative Map of Nigeria, as reiterated by the National Boundary Commission vide its letter no. NBC SEC.4/s/75 July 3, 2002 addressed by the Governor of Rivers State.” Ikuru accused the Bayelsa
PROTEST: Disengaged staff of Exxon Mobil’s Qua Ibo terminal protesting shortfalls in their terminal benefits in Eket yesterday.
Reps probe alleged misappropriation of $67bn foreign reserve BY OKEY NDIRIBE & EMMAN OVUAKPORIE
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HE House of Rep resentatives has resolved to investigate the Federal Government’s alleged squandering of $67 billion in the last six years. The alleged squandered sum comprised Nigeria’s foreign reserves which stood at $45 billion as well as the excess crude fund which stood at $22 billion as at 2007. The allegation was made by Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, a former Special Adviser on Public Procurement to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and one time Vice President of the World Bank.
Allegation She had alleged that the government of late President Umaru
State Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, Mr. Richard Egele, of alleged secret meetings with indigenes of Kula community in Rivers State to lay claim to being indigenes of Bayelsa State. The meeting could not continue as Ikuru announced the withdrawal of Rivers delegation from further deliberation and participation in any joint delimitation and demarcation exercise in respect of the boundary until their demands were met.
Yar ’Adua and the current administration mismanaged the huge sum which was left behind by Obasanjo's administration. The House, in adopting a motion sponsored by Umar Bature (PDP, Sokoto), directed its Committees in charge of Finance and Appropriation to jointly investigate the allegation and report back within six weeks. Throwing more light on his motion, Bature urged the House to conduct the investigation because of the background of Ezekwesili as Special Adviser to the President on Public Procurement who later became a Minister of Education. The former minister who had spoken at the 44th convocation lecture of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, held last week had alleged that the squandered sum was made up of direct savings from increased
earnings that arose from oil sales which the Obasanjo administration handed over to the successor government in 2007. She had lamented that six years after the administration she served handed over such a huge amount of cash to another one, most Nigerians, especially the poor, continue to suffer the effects of failing public health and education systems as well as decrepit infrastructure and battered institutions. She had asked: “One cannot but ask what exactly does this level of brazen misappropriation of public resources symbolize? Where did all that money go? Where is the accountability for the use of these resources and the additional funds realised from oil sale by the two administrations that have governed our nation in the last six years?"