The Presidency has taken on Punch newspapers for its unflattering
reports on the leadership style and activities of the President Goodluck
Jonathan administration.
Punch Newspapers reported on November 25th, that N5 trillion had been stolen under President Jonathan’s administration.
Punch said, “Our correspondents arrived at the stolen sum after
poring over the reports of the various committees set up by the
President to probe some sectors of the economy, particularly oil and
gas.”
It added, “Five trillion naira is the summation of government funds
said to have been stolen, according to the Mallam Nuhu Ribadu-led
Petroleum Task Force report; the Minister of Trade and Investment’s
report on stolen crude; the House of Representatives fuel subsidy report
and investigations into the ecological fund, SIM card registration and
frequency band spectrum sale.
“The Ribadu report on the oil and gas sector put daily crude oil
theft at a high 250,000 barrels daily at a cost of $6.3bn (N1.2trn) a
year. This puts the total amount lost through oil theft in the two years
of Jonathan’s government at over $12.6bn (N2trn).”
In his rebuttal of the claims, the Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe said the Punch was peddling
gross misinformation and absolute falsehood.
“We reiterate that the conclusion that N5 trillion was stolen under
President’s Jonathan’s watch is gross misinformation and absolute
falsehood. Nowhere in the Ribadu was that conclusion reached. It never
happened, and it is wholesomely untrue.
“We want to state categorically, for the umpteenth time that it was
this administration that exposed the oil subsidy scam, pension scam, and
also set up the Nuhu Ribadu committee to look into the rot in the oil
sector.
“We must state that the fight against corruption is not a short
boxing bout, but a long fight that will be systemic, strategic and
institutional. The role of the judiciary in bringing culprits to justice
cannot be underestimated in the war against corruption. No matter the
Federal Government’s commitment , the President has no power to jail any
suspect by presidential fiat. Therefore he should not be made a scape
goat for the failure of other arms of government who fail to
judiciously discharge their responsibilities. It is also not true that
lack of funding is stalling the fight as concluded by Chairman,
Coalition Against Corruption, Debo Adeniran. We must not forget what
the EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde said recently about how judges and
lawyers stall trials of high profile suspects. The two trials of James
Ibori inNigeriaand theUnited Kingdomfully underscore this point.
“The Federal Government, mindful of this judicial stumbling block,
has put together a bill to reform the criminal justice system, so that
justice will no longer be evaded through sundry abuses of court
processes.
“We assure Nigerians that in spite of the persistent and perplexing
mischief of deceitful politicians, and some unpatriotic Nigerians who
never sees good in whatever government does, the administration will
continue its unrelenting fight to rid our society of this menace.”
This is a war the President has set for himself and he has demonstrated the will and capability to prosecute same.
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