There was drama in the Senate on Tuesday, when the Upper Chamber threatened the Minister of Work Mike Onolememen and the Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala with arrest for failing to appear before it over alleged fraud of N500 billion in the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P).
Senate adhoc committee on SURE-P at the resumed session said only N300 billion has so far been paid out from the N800 received from N32 deduction in the 25 billion liters fuel so far sold.
Nigerian National Petroleum Commission (NNPC), Central Bank of Nigeria have case to answer in connection with alleged fraud according to the committee.
Kabiru Mararaba said the committee discovered that over N834bn ought to have accrued to the nation for the SURE – P programme if N32.00 was removed from the 770, 695, 645 litres of fuel sold in 21 months.
He said the figure was contained in a letter from the Ministry on Petroleum Resources to the committee dated October 9 this year, and signed by its Director of Finance and Accounts, Mr. Salmanu Faskari.
He said: “The committee wrote to the NNPC to ascertain the quantity of fuel sold from when the Subsidy programme started till date. NNPC gave us the quantity sold from January 2012 and September 2013, covering 21 months.
“If you add everything together, it will amount to about 25 billion litres and if you multiply 25 billion litre by N32.00, you get about N800bn. What SURE – P Coordinators told us when they appeared before us was that they had so far collected about N300bn since the subsidy regime started.
“The SURE – P team led by Mr. Christopher Kolade, said they were receiving N15bn flat rate every month. If you multiply 21 months by N15bn, it will be about N350bn. What we are asking is what happened to the over N500bn difference. That is what we ask the NNPC to come and tell us.
“We were also disappointed that the CBN was not here because they are the custodian of the fund. They should come account for how they came about the N15bn they were remitting every month when it was not the same quantity of fuel they sell every month.
“The figure cannot be a flat rate. Based on the figure which the ministry supplied, in January this year, the nation consumed about 1.3bn litre of petrol but it had dropped to 770, 695, 645 in September 2013.”
Senate said it will hence forth take every legitimate opportunity in calling to order those who treat it with gross impunity and disregard. The Deputy Senate Leader and Chairman of the Senate Adhoc Committee on SURE-P, Senator Abdul Ningi sounded the warning to heads of Departments, Agencies and Parastatals of government as well as to Ministers, yesterday, following the continuous display of nonchalance to Senate invitations by government officials.
The senate was mostly angered by the inability of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to honor an invitation by the Adhoc committee on issue surrounding alleged N500 bill fraud in-connection with subsidy reinvestment and empowerment programme, and details on ministry consumption of petroleum (PMS).
Ningi said both the National Assembly, the Ministers and Heads of government establishments owe Nigerians the duty and responsibility to know how their money is being spent and that iniviting anyone for inquiry was not to witch hunt them.
He said: “We are asking legitimate questions about how they arrive at their expenditures and estimates. We must be able to arrive at a conclusion whether the y should scrap this programme or not, but neither the NNPC nor the CBN officials cared to attend. Personally I have never seen this level of gross impunity and disregard for constituted authority, this attitude goes to show that the sure-p which is a cardinal programme of the Federal Government is being undermined from inside government.”