It has been uncovered that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission may not be making use of the investigative report on the fuel subsidy management conducted by the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee led by Mr. Farouk Lawan.
It has been revealed that the EFCC is considering dumping the report as a result of its doubt on the credibility of the report. The leadership of the EFCC presently see the Lawan committee’s report, which is involved in a $620,000 bribe controversy involving Lawan and Femi Otedola, as a mere fact-finding committee which does not have the power to prosecute due to the controversy that surrounds the outcome of the investigation.
The commission believes that it would be wrong to rely on the investigation conducted by the ad hoc committee, which revealed the theft of N1.07tn subsidy funds by oil importers and their collaborators, due to what it got itself involved in.
The committee headed by Lawan had recommended that 72 companies be investigated by “the relevant anti-corruption agencies in order to establish their culpability and to recover the N230.1bn said to have been misappropriated by them.”
Dailypost reliably gathered that the commission would be depending on the investigation carried out by its Director of Operations, Mr. Laolu Adegbite, to prosecute all those involved in the oil scandal,
It is the view of the leadership of the commission that all those found to have played various roles in the issue of the subsidy and whose names came up during the investigations would face prosecution irrespective of whether the person is an importer, or a Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency or the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation worker.
Even though the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, had disclosed that the prosecution of indicted oil importers will commence next week, it is obvious that probing is still ongoing and there is doubt on whether investigation would be over before next week.
“The report was not discussed as an issue, but assurances were given that as soon as the EFCC finishes its assignment, which is very soon, you will begin to see prosecution probably in the next one week.
“So, Nigerians should rest assured that this is not an issue that will be swept under the carpet.
“We have gone this far because we want a proper and painstaking investigation done so that when we charge people to court, there will be no lapses or loopholes for lawyers to explore,” the AGF had told State House correspondents in Abuja.
When our correspondent contacted the acting Head of Media of the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, he said he did not have the details about the investigations being carried out.
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