Reps demand full report on NNPC audit

The House of Representatives on Thursday asked the Federal Government to lay the full forensic report on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) without further delay. The resolution on the motion titled ‘Forensic audit report on the NNPC missing fund’ which was unanimously supported by the lawmakers was sponsored by Femi Gbajabiamila, APC caucus leader. In his lead debate, Gbajabiamila noted with concern the allegations by the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, in 2013 that huge amount of money in the sum of $20 billion was missing from NNPC, an allegation that has generated so much agitations from the general public. He observed that after the submission of the audit report conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to the presidency on February 2, 2015, the report is yet to be presented to the National Assembly and the general public.

To this extent, the House resolved that “for the purposes of accountability and in compliance with the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, the Federal Government should as a matter of urgency and in the interest of the general public make the full report available to the House Committee on Public Accounts.” Also at the Thursday plenary, Aminu Tambuwal, speaker of the House of Representatives, directed the joint Committee on Rules and Business, Judiciary and Justice to advise him on whether there is any subsisting suit on the Ekiti governorship election. Tambuwal issued the directive after the debate on the motion titled ‘Un- constitutional deployment of military personnel for election purposes’ sponsored by Femi Gbajabiamila.

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The APC caucus leader, who opposed the deployment of military personnel to polling units during the Ekiti election, noted that such act contravenes Section 217 of the 1999 constitution as amended, adding that section 214 and 215 empowered the Nigeria police to provide public safety and public order anywhere in Nigeria including all polling units and wards during elections. He also urged the House to prevail on the Federal Government, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and all stake- holders to obey the decision of the Federal High Court, Sokoto, until it is set aside. The lawmakers during the debate on the ‘recent attack on a political rally in River State’ sponsored by Robinson Uwak, called on the Nigeria police to investigate, arrest and prosecute all those involved in the bomb explosion during the All Progressives Congress (APC) rally held in Okrika, River State. In his lead debate, Uwak recalled that on January 14, 2015, leaders from all the political parties in the country agreed on behalf of them- selves and their supporters that there will be peace, before, during and after the 2015 general elections.

He, however, noted that on February 17, 2015 guns were fired and multiple explosions were set-off at the National School Field, Okri- ka venue of an APC rally in River State. The explosion, he said, caused the loss of many lives including the lives of security agents and damage to the school building and its facilities. The lawmaker lamented that the rally was disrupted by hoodlums of a rival political party who attacked the rally with assorted sophisticated firearms, noting that with the spate of political violence across the country, security agencies are not doing enough to ensure that the rights of citizens are protected. Uwak, who called for re- dress, observed that the attack took place in spite of the warnings by local politicians against APC rally in Okrika. An attack of such magnitude was carried out without proper reactionary measures by the police and other security agencies, he said.