Last Updated on 20 January 2013
The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has condemned Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke for allegedly withholding the report of Police investigation and draft charges against embattled former Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, Hon. Farouk Lawan, who is alleged to have received $620, 000 bribe from oil magnate, Femi Otedola.
Reacting to reports of claims by the Nigerian Police that it had sent the case file to Adoke since August 2012, Executive Chairman of the Coalition, Debo Adeniran derided the AGF for his constant practice of shielding corrupt people.
“It is so unfortunate that our AGF could cover up such magnitude of corruption. We knew from the outset that the whole scandal broke out to rubbish the authenticity of the House of Representatives’ report,” Adeniran said.
“Though the bribe giver claimed it was a sting operation done in connivance with the men of the State Security Service, my question still remains: ‘why did it take both Otedola and the SSS two solid months to speak up after giving the marked dollar’?
“I am still maintaining that the oil magnate is as guilty as Lawan himself because if he (Otedola) did not make the payment for himself, he probably paid the bribe to let his friends in the industry off the hook of the Farouk Lawan’s Committee. To this end, the AGF should make public the Police investigation and ensure apposite prosecution of both the bribe taker and the giver.”
He further argued that certain salient issues raised in the committee’s report are sacrosanct and must be attended to, if President Goodluck Jonathan is really sincere with his anti-corruption fight and wants to be taken seriously.
“It is so unfortunate the Farouk Lawan’s report went the way of others, but there are some salient issues that must be treated with steel gloves. The House report claimed that our nation does not have business with oil importation, let alone pay subsidy, because the output of our four refineries could serve the whole nation,” he said.
“No one from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) or theOoffice of the Minister of Petroleum has come out to debunk the allegation. The issue of fuel subsidy is what the president must tackle headlong because that remains the main avenue through which our common patrimony is diverted into private coffers.”