12th June, 2012
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has warned that the allegation of bribery involving the chair of the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on fuel subsidy management, Farouk Lawan, must not be allowed to scuttle the implementation of the committee’s report.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party expressed deep concern at the timing of the allegation to coincide with the period that Nigerians expect the government to be dealing with the issues raised in the report.
It said Nigerians generally believe, going by published reactions to the report, that the committee carried out a thorough job in exposing the massive mismanagement and the sleaze involved in the fuel subsidy issue.
”Therefore, the allegation of bribery making the rounds should not be used as a reason not to allow all those indicted by the report to have their day in court,” ACN said.
The party said while the bribery allegation must be thoroughly investigated and anyone found culpable dealt with according to the laws of the land, any attempt to cast aspersion on the report, to say it has been tainted by the bribery allegation, should be resisted by the House of Representatives.
”We are concerned that this case is eerily similar to what happened after the House’s probe into the $16 billion reportedly spent in the power sector during the Obasanjo administration.Instead of implementing the report of the committee, the man who presided over the probe was slammed with corruption charges. Till today, that report was never implemented and Nigeria remains in darkness,” it said.