Expdonaloaded News; Repeating NNPC audit probe is like witch-hunt –Activists

The ghost of the probe of the missing money in the NNPC appears to be lurking around even after the investigations had been concluded.
But some people are of the view that the situation should not remain that way because by their argument, enough has been said and done about the allegation that came up two years ago and led to certain drastic developments in the financial and oil sectors.

The whistleblower in the matter was the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Alhaji Lamido Sanusi who raised the allegation that some money was missing from the NNPC which it should have been remitted to the Federation Account in the custody of the apex bank.
Sanusi said the money covered 18 months, from January 2012 to July, 2013.
The exact amount of money was a subject of shifting figures as the governor gave different amounts and at last, it settled at about $20b.
The only way to resolve the argument was to set up of an external audit to reconcile the figures and find out if any money was actually missing
When the National Assembly in a joint probe headed by Senator Ahmed Makarfi sat over the matter, the Finance Minister, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala gave a way out of the controversy by suggesting that auditors should be invited to reconcile the figures. That was followed through by the Auditor-General of the federation that engaged the  reputable PricewaterHouseCoopers (PwC) to handle the job.
After some months of tedious work, the PwC released the forensic audit report, which was an abridged version of the entire findings that was a large volume of about 190 pages last month. But that doesn’t seem to assuage some feelings.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com..Recently, in a tone that sounded like the audit report already made public wasn’t enough palliative, the president-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari while receiving a delegation of his party from Adamawa State on courtesy visit to him promised that he was going to set up another probe of the same alleged missing  money..Just last Sunday, President Goodluck Jonathan announced to the public at a church thanksgiving that his ministers and himself should brace up for an impact of persecution by the Buhari administration.
We disagree
As follow-up to that call, a Niger Delta pressure group led by Comrade Iginewari Lawson called on Abuja Metro to ask that more emphasis be placed on the persecution alert by Jonathan.
The Niger Delta Conscience Initiative (NDCI) has found it a duty to warn that while the incoming administration would do well to place Nigeria on a good pedestal, attempts at witch-hunt should be avoided.
We don’t accept persecution as means of governance or a way of cleaning up the system. We in the body don’t encourage corruption in any shade, but at the same time, people should not be singled out for persecution for just serving the nation. Nigerians should know that no normal person comes in defence of a public officer that held his or her office in breach.
Novel steps in NNPC
“We are saying this bearing in mind that Buhari has promised that he will conduct a fresh probe or audit on the same missing money. We have also heard people making spurious but serious allegations against the Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke over the management of the NNPC. The commission has been there since 1978, even when Buhari was oil minister and we never heard of any audit of the body until Jonathan did that to clear the image of the administration. So, for the first time, the Jonathan administration broke the NNPC probe jinx and had its account audited. No government did that before. We don’t know if this should attract commendation or condemnation.
With the veiled reference to Alison-Madueke, we would want Buhari to face the real issue of governance and don’t dabble in shadow chasing because if a world class audit body like the PwC could audit the NNPC
and return the verdict that no money was missing, then, we don’t see why anybody would feel that the reputable body with worldwide image would involve in compromise because of Alison-Madueke. Moreover, a good law or administration does not target to punish an individual at all costs. Punishment comes with verifiable offence and should not be a thing a body or government will make up its mind ahead of time that someone must be punished. Now an audit has been conducted and there is no indictment on her, a task to set up another audit to find her culpable at all costs is not acceptable. That is not proper and consistent with the spirit of anti-corruption.
NNPC good standing
Lawson said in reference to the report that “our body wants to remind the nation that the only indictment on the NNPC from that probe is that with the slump in crude oil price, NNPC cost of operations that takes so much of the percentage of its output would not be sustained and unless it changes the approach, it might face hard times .
That NNPC alluded to in the report is not Diezani, it is about the institution that had been there when Diezani was probably in primary school.
Thorough probe
On the claims that the audit was not thorough and there was no probe, Lawson said the points have no facts. “Remember that the National Assembly conducted a proper probe of the joint chambers headed by Senator Makarfi and it was in the course of that probe that the Finance Minister suggested the audit which was commissioned later by the Auditor-General of the Federation. We can never agree that PwC would compromise its world reputation because of the Petroleum Minister. The report is out and we have all seen it that even when Sanusi bandied so many different figures from $69b to $50b, $20b and later $12b, Nigerians didn’t see that as irresponsible of the governor of the CBN not to be sure of the figure he presents to the public as missing government money. At the NASS probe, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC then, Andrew Yakubu even clarified that the money lumped together for NNPC as non-remittance were actually from some oil agencies that operate separate accounts from NNPC and do direct remittances to the CBN. All these did not convince Nigerians and that is why we accepted the audit to rest the matter.
Targeting Diezani
“So those of us from the Niger Delta see this pronouncement as prelude to the persecution Jonathan talked about and it is not necessary. What we expect from Buhari is to work with the audit report and implement those recommendations that would strengthen the commission and not chasing shadows to catch Alison-Madueke. It is vindictive and not what we will keep quiet and watch him do. If at last, he has reason, outside shadow chasing to indict the minister that is ok, but to go for her, based on that audit report is meaningless and we will stand against it any day. We will rather see it as attack on an official from the region just because of where she comes from.”
The initiative said what Alison-Madueke deserves is commendation for her local content push in the oil sector that opened up the space for Nigerians to invest and participate in some sub-sectors that they never had access to. “She said it recently while addressing journalists at the state house that the people actually after her are the players in the oil cabal that feel her local content initiative stopped their sleaze and rip-off of the nation. So, should we not rather commend and thank a person that opened up the space in the sector and led to the creation of about 350,000 local jobs in the oil and gas sector. We are saying that it would be unfair for Buhari to allow himself to be taken in by the push of the oil cabal Alison-Madueke mentioned and go chasing her about over a probe and audit that has been concluded and never found her wanting.”