Probe subsidy payments, missing oil revenue, NLC, SERAP tell Tinubu

The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) have asked President Bola Tinubu to urgently set up a panel of enquiry to probe all fuel subsidy payments made by the Federal Government.

They also want an enquiry into alleged mismanagement of $2.1bn and N3.1tn oil revenues before fuel subsidy removal can be effected.

The probe demand follows the removal of the subsidy, which took the petrol pump price to about N500 per litre and threat by the organised labour to go on strike from Wednesday.

While the NLC President Joe Ajero called for a probe of the subsidy regime in the past eight years, with the amount paid on subsidy and the beneficiaries of the payment, SERAP said it should cover the whole period since the return of democracy in 1999.

The labour leader also urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited to ensure a proper account of the amount of petroleum products Nigerians consume daily.

He accused the NNPCL of refusing to disclose beneficiaries of subsidy and landing cost of petroleum products.

Ajero said, “The Nigeria Labour Congress is calling for a thorough probe in the process of subsidy to know those involved and the amount involved. Investigate it properly before it is swept under the carpet. The current attempt to sweep the fraudulent practices in the subsidy regime should not be tolerated by all well-meaning Nigerians.”

SERAP said there was a need to investigate alleged missing $2.1bn and N3.1tn oil revenues and subsidy payments between 2016 and 2019, as documented by the Auditor-General of the Federation.

It urged Tinubu to “name and shame anyone suspected to be responsible for the alleged widespread and systemic corruption in the use of oil revenues and the management of public funds budgeted as fuel subsidy and to ensure their effective prosecution as well as the full recovery of any proceeds of crime.”

In the letter dated June 3, 2023 and signed by SERAP Deputy Director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said, “There is a legitimate public interest in ensuring justice and accountability for these serious allegations. There will be no economic growth or sustainability without accountability for these human rights crimes.

“Your government should urgently act to follow due process of law in any policy to remove fuel subsidy, ensure that suspected perpetrators of these crimes against Nigerians are brought to justice and full recovery of any missing public funds.”

SERAP noted that removing fuel subsidy arbitrarily “without addressing outstanding accountability issues in the alleged mismanagement of oil revenues and fuel subsidy payments would amount to punishing poverty and further impoverishing the poor while letting high-profile officials and non-state actors get away with their crimes.”

The letter read in part: “Any removal of fuel subsidy should not be used as a ploy to keep the poor in poverty while those who allegedly stole oil revenues and fuel subsidy payments keep their ill-gotten wealth.

“Allegations of corruption in oil revenues and fuel subsidy payments suggest that the poor have rarely benefited from the use and management of the revenues and payments.”

It further said, “According to the audited reports between 2016 and 2019 by the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failed to remit N663,896,567,227.58 into the Federation Account. The Auditor-General fears that the money may be missing.

“The NNPC also reportedly failed to account for the allocation of crude oil to refineries in 2019. 107,239,436.00 barrels of crude oil were lifted as domestic crude without any document. The Auditor-General fears that the crude valued at N55,891,009,960.63 may have been diverted.”