Reps extend subsidy payments probe to Jonathan administration

The House of Representatives, on Tuesday, extended the scope of its investigation of payments for subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, to the last administration led by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The House had on June 29, 2022, resolved to investigate payments for subsidy on petroleum products especially petrol under a period that fell under the regime led by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, had set up an ‘Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate the Petroleum Products Subsidy regime from 2017 to 2021,’ which was mandated to report back to the House within eight weeks for further legislative action.

Jonathan was president till 2015 when Buhari took over power.

At the plenary on Tuesday, Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, Abubakar Fulata, moved a motion to call for an extension of the probe.

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The motion was titled, ‘Need for Extension of the Mandate of the Special Ad hoc Committee to Investigate the Petroleum Products Subsidy Regime (Pursuant to Order One, Rule1(2) of the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives.’

Fulata noted that the Ad hoc Committee on Petroleum Products Subsidy Regime was constituted on June 31, 2022, with the mandate to investigate the subsidy regime in Nigeria. He also noted that the current regime had adopted a policy known as Direct Sales Direct Purchase, a swap arrangement whereby crude oil is swapped for equivalent refined petroleum products, “while the other by-products from the refined crude oil are not accounted for.”