Parties Want NASS To Probe Aig-Imoukhuede Over Role In Subsidy Scams

SOME political parties mostly peopled by the de-registered parties have called on the National Assembly to launch a probe into the role played by the Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede’s Presidential Committee on Oil Subsidy, Access Bank and Coscharis Motors.
In a letter to the Chairman, House Committee on Public Petitions of the House of Representatives, the parties under the aegies of the National Leaders of Political Parties (NLPP), expressed worries that at a time when Nigerians are suffering from acute and perennial fuel scarcity, Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited, a Company that supplies about 35 per cent of daily consumption of petroleum products in Nigeria has been shut down purportedly on the orders of a Federal High Court in Abuja at the behest of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
The group said the closure of Capital Oil is a step aimed at introducing deregulation through the back door.
The parties included: National Conscience Party, Justice Party, People Progressive Party, African Renaissance Party, All Progressives Grand Alliance, Nigerian Advance Party, Democratic Peoples Alliance, National Movement of Progressive Party, People for Democratic Change, Better Nigeria Progressive Party, People Salvation Party, New Democratic Party, PSF, CPP, MPP and PDC.
The group said: “You will recall that on January 1, 2012, Nigerians were shocked with an astronomical increase in the prices of petroleum products by the Federal Government which led to unprecedented mass protests nationwide. It seems to us that this closure of a local major supplier of petroleum products is an attempt by the same government to implement the same increase in the price of fuel through the back door. If this closure is not reversed, the fuel scarcity in the country will exacerbate, quadruple and cause enormous hardship, suffering, inflation, economic stagnation and aggravation of other debilitating social and economic indicators in the country.”
It also highlighted that the current travails of Capital Oil will lead to about 5,000 people losing their jobs in an environment that is full of unemployed persons.
“Whereas the youths of Nigeria are expecting a marshal plan of aggressive job creation, the government that promised a transformative agenda, is implementing policies that are aggravating the unemployment situation in the country by sacking workers even in the private sector,” it argued.
The parties said it is surprising that Aig-Imoukhuede, who is an interested party is the one that led the probe into an area he has more than passive interest.
It added: “We are amazed that one person, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, the Managing Director of Access Bank Plc, a major player in the oil subsidy imbroglio, also an interested party in the debts related to Capital Oil and Gas Industries Limited, happens to be the person appointed by the President to head the Presidential Committee on Fuel Subsidy. This is a glaring case of conflict of interest that an ordinary person would have expected the government to know and avoid.”
It reminded the House of Representatives that it has a responsibility to prevail on Mr. President to make public the full and original report of the Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede led Presidential Committee on Subsidy.
It also demanded that on behalf of the long-suffering masses of this country, the House should also ensure that the Federal Ministry of Finance make full disclosure of all waivers granted to the oil marketers and the beneficiaries.
The parties are also interested in knowing who are directly responsible for the disbursement of the subsidy payments to the oil marketers.