Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu have condemned in the strongest terms
insinuation from former Chairman of the All Progressive Congress, APC,
Chief Bisi Akande that their elections into the leadership of the National
Assembly was facilitated by oil cabals.
Chief Bisi Akande had on Sunday fingered fuel subsidy thieves and corrupt
businessmen as being behind the current crisis in the APC which culminated
in the emergence of Bukola Saraki as senate president and Yakubu Dogara as
speaker of the House of Representatives
The Senate President and the Speaker in a statement said the allegations
from Chief Akande was not only uncharitable but mischievous.
Saraki said:
“Ordinarily, we would have ignored the report credited to Chief Akande but
for the sole reason that some undiscerning readers might mistake the
fiction for the facts. We wish to state unequivocally that it was wrong
and mischievous for the statement by Chief Akande to link what happened on
the floor of both chambers to some unnamed oil barons. We dare say that
the entire story was the figment of the imagination of the author and we
make bold to state that in the 7th Assembly, Senator Bukola Saraki was
Chairman of the Senate Adhoc Committee which exposed the fraud and
mismanagement in the oil sector.
A statement from the office of the Senate President reads:
“Until Saraki’s motion on the floor of the senate, no one was in the
picture of the rot in the sector or took any action. Therefore, Senator
Saraki will be the last person the oil barons will want to see as Senate
President. In that position, Saraki did not only lead his colleagues in
exposing the rot in the scheme but made very strong recommendations on how
the system could be reformed and made corrupt- free. It is on record that
through his motion on the floor of the Senate, the House of
Representatives followed in what is to be known as Oil Subsidy probe which
the Ministers of Finance and Petroleum summoned and at last over N500
billion was saved.
“Further to this, during the Senate hearing on the missing $20 billion,
Senator Saraki led the onslaught to both the Minister of Finance, Minister
of Petroleum and other federal agencies despite being in the ruling party
then. To this effect, Senator Saraki refused to sign the final copy of the
committee’s report but rather put forward a minority report with a press
statement and went further to oppose the inclusion of kerosene subsidy in
the 2015 budget as well as his opposition to Petroleum swap deal by NNPC.
“The 8th Senate under Senator Saraki would give all necessary legislative
support to the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to fight and
reduce corruption against the so called oil barons and for avoidance of
doubt, we want to make it abundantly clear that it is totally false,
untrue and calculated mischief to suggest that Senator Saraki’s emergence
as Senate President was facilitated by oil barons.”
Also speaking on the issue, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon.
Yakubu Dogara, said that his election and acceptance was as a result of
his capacity, experience, spirit of team player, incorruptibility and his
progressive mind and which endeared him to his colleagues.
In his reaction signed by his Special Adviser, Media and Public Affairs,
Turaki Hassan, Dogara said:
“The allegation by Chief Akande is unbecoming of a well-respected
elder-stateman and a former Interim National Chairman of the APC.
“We challenge Chief Akande to name the so-called oil barons whom he
alleged sponsored the election of the Speaker and in case Chief Akande
does not know, the first investigative motion adopted by the 8th House of
Representatives under the leadership of the Rt. Hon. Speaker was to
investigate the allegation of fraud in the oil-swap contract awarded by
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
“A resolution instituting investigation into the allegation was passed
with a resolve to constitute an Ad-hoc committee to investigate the NNPC,
as well as its subsidiary, Pipelines and Products Marketing Company over
the swap contracts. How then can the House under the leadership of Mr.
Speaker order investigation into activities of those who allegedly
sponsored his election. So, Chief Akande`s allegation is unfortunate and
uncharitable.”