Rights group wants EFCC to probe activities of Petroleum Minister

Miffed  with the level of corruption among government officials in Nigeria, a civil society organization, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has petitioned the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to look into the activities of the Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Allison-Madueke over allegation of corrupt practices.

The group, led by its Executive Chairman Debo Adeniran held a peaceful protest at the zonal office of the commission in Lagos, demanding a probe into the minister’s activities, which according to the group’s petition include reckless abuse of office, wastage of the nation’s resources under the guise of performing her official functions, engagement in questionable deals, connivance with some oil and gas multinationals to rob Nigeria of large chunk of money, direct stealing of the nation’s money, using her position and siphoning the nation’s earnings to foreign lands for personal interests among others.

“Since the appointment of the said minister, the country is reported to have lost billions of dollars through the aforementioned avenues. So much noise has been made from various quarters, which even include that of the House of Representatives of recent, without any significant response whatsoever. An invitation from the hallowed chambers to the minister was not honoured. We refuse however to believe that there exists any clique of the “untouchables” to which she probably belongs and this is why we are here joining our voices to others to demand that your highly esteemed, responsible and responsive Commission, commence, without delay, the process of probing the office of the minister, beaming your investigative searchlight on those areas of her activities,” the petition said. 

It added: “More so, the House of Representatives instituted an investigation into the allegations of corruption made against the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke. This time, it is based on an allegation involving a whooping N58 trillion fraud in the award of oil blocks.

The probe by the House was in response to a petition by five oil-producing communities in Delta State. According to the allegations, the NNPC, which the minister sits atop its board, collaborated with Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Limited in an N58.9trn illicit oil deal that allegedly shortchanged the oil-producing communities in Delta State.” Receiving the petition on behalf of the Commission’s chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, the Head of Operations at the Lagos Zonal office, Iliyasu Kwarbai thanked the group for its peaceful protest, and promised that he will personally tender the petition before the chairman.

He refuted claims that the Commission was bias in its duties, saying, “no one is above the laws of the land.”