A foremost civil society organisation in Nigeria, the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate and possibly prosecute those involved in the upfront sale of Nigeria’s crude oil.
In the petition, CACOL stated that recently, a cross-section of the media reported a statement credited to the Minister of Finance, Olawale Edun, that the former President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration sold the nation’s crude oil upfront for two years and collected the proceeds, prompting the current administration to sell crude without collecting its value for money.
The centre’s chairman, Debo Adeniran, remarked that the implications of this unholy act are evident now and can be felt in different dimensions.
He stated, “Firstly, it has made some people, especially those from whose region the oil is being extracted, become restive and threaten to disrupt the fragile peace being enjoyed in their region.
“Secondly, the upfront sale of crude oil is a significant cause of the current administration’s problem as it has dwindled the revenue hitherto generated from crude oil. Hence, there is an apparent shortfall in the available resources that could have been used to carry out developmental projects nationwide.
“Moreover, most people are not attributing the current hardship being faced by the populace to the mismanagement and gross abuse of the trust and mandate given to the immediate past administration, but rather they felt it is a result of the current administration’s incompetence and mediocrity that is causing the current economic and monetary impasse without looking at the root cause of the problem.”
Adeniran further said, “We also want to believe that the upfront sale of crude oil might just be the tip of the iceberg of what the Minister of Finance could reveal given political expediency. There may be more than meets the eye even in other sectors.
“To this end, we call for an urgent investigation of this claim by the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy to unravel those behind the sale and inform Nigerians what the money was used for.”
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