The All Progressives Congress (APC ) has
challenged President Goodluck Jonathan to
urgently speak out and take action on the
monumental Malabu oil scandal that is rocking
his administration and again putting Nigeria
under the global searchlight as a corrupt
nation.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by
its National Publicity Secretary , Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, the party said President Jonathan
must end his silence on the matter since half
of the 1 . 1 billion US dollars paid to Malabu Oil
and gas for oil field OPL 245 by two oil majors
was allegedly used to bribe Nigerian officials ,
who in turn used the proceeds to buy private
jets and armoured limousines .
It said that since the deal to pay Malabu the
huge funds was brokered and passionately
defended by the Jonathan administration, it
stands to reason that officials of the same
administration will know one or two things , and
perhaps are part and parcel , of the whole
scandal .
“The only way to know for sure is if there is an
independent investigation of the allegation ,
which has been published by the international
media after Italian prosecutors intensified their
probe into the deal . This is where President
Jonathan comes in: He must allow an
unfettered probe of this scandal that has again
put Nigeria in bad light . Whatever happens,
however , the names of those who received the
bribes will soon be known , thanks to the
determination of the UK and Italy to show that
no one who violates their laws will go scot -
free .
“Just like the Halliburton and Siemens bribery
scandals that were also exposed from abroad ,
this Malabu scandal has again damaged
Nigeria ’s standing in the comity of nations .
While US , France , Italy and Germany have
jailed officials and imposed fines on the foreign
firms that gave bribes to Nigerian officials in
the Halliburton and Siemens scandals , none of
those who received the bribes here in Nigeria
has been touched . The Malabu scandal must
not go the same way ,” the statement said .
The party said Nigeria has never had it as bad ,
in terms of runaway corruption that has cost
the nation billions of dollars in money that
would have gone into national development, as
it is having under the prodigiously- corrupt
Jonathan Administration .
“There is no better way to say this . The
Jonathan administration is swimming in
corruption and the President has
contumaciously allowed it to fester because his
government is feeding fat on the proceeds of
graft. He has even tried to use semantics to
cover up the extent of sleaze, saying stealing is
not corruption ,” it said .
APC said apart from the Malabu , Halliburton
and Siemens scandals , the Jonathan
administration has done nothing to tell
Nigerians what happened to the 20 billion
dollars in diverted oil money ; the multi -billion
naira fuel subsidy fraud for which no single
persons has been brought to justice ; opaque
crude oil swaps at the expense of encouraging
domestic refinery; payment of billions of naira
in kerosene subsidy without appropriation and
the gargantuan police pension fraud .
“Under your watch, Mr. President, there is
massive looting of the commonwealth by the
same people being paid by taxpayers to ensure
a judicious utilization of the scarce national
resources. There is a growing culture of
impunity because no one is punished for the
looting . Now you have another chance to turn
things around for the better .
“The Malabu scandal provides such a chance .
All those who collected millions of dollars in
bribes in the illegal transaction must be
identified and brought to justice immediately .
We must not always allow foreign countries to
be the ones exposing corrupt Nigerian officials .
Our government must act like a responsible
government by demonstrating it will not allow
violation of its laws or encourage corruption, ”
the party said .
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