Indications emerged yesterday that N520 million appropriated by the National Assembly as logistics to aid the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has been diverted to other purposes.
It was gathered that the money was approved for the Federal Government to aid lawmakers in providing logistics for hiring consultants and offset other sundry expenses, but the money was allegedly diverted to produce fliers, posters and huge billboards that were reportedly meant as ‘sensitization materials’ for the PIB.
Checks revealed that there was disquiet in the Senate over delay in submitting the report to the whole Senate for consideration.
Already, Senate had spent N40 million on the PIB that was given to the Committees on Petroleum Resources (Upstream and Downstream), Gas, Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters for consideration since 2013. There were more than 40 senators on the joint committee, the largest ever in the National Assembly.
A source in one of the committees said: “Senate made N40 million available to the joint committees and after having conducted public hearings, the joint committee involved foreign consultants who are experts in various fields in the oil and gas industry to help collate the report.
“That has been done since last year and presently, we don’t know what is the cause of the delay.”
Another ranking senator disclosed that “the PIB report is ready and a draft copy, complete with the executive summary that would be presented by the lead committee Chairman, Senator Paulker Emmanuel, has been submitted to the Senate leadership. Some of the committee chairmen are ready to even sign the report.”
However, another obstacle is that some committee members are not ready to append their signatures to the report.
In a new twist, Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, dropped hints that the incoming administration of Muhammadu Buhari is interested in the PIB and so, would want to make some inputs after studying the bill.