|
|
 advertisement
|  
|
Intrigues loom as Senate gets report on PTDF today
THE failure of majority of members of the Senate Ad-hoc Committee that investigated the activities of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) to invite President Olusegun Obasanjo has divided the Committee. That committee today submits its report to the Senate, amidst indications that it promises to be a dramatic day.
A member of the Senate Ad-hoc Committee, Senator Titus Olupitan, yesterday disagreed with his colleagues on the modus operandi employed by the Committee, and wondered why President Obasanjo was not invited to state his side after the Vice President mentioned him in some of the activities of PTDF.
He has sent in his points of disagreement to be attached to the main body of the report, and said on phone yesterday that he hoped his colleagues would be informed in the report of his areas of objection.
"If not, I will have no choice but distribute the copies I have to the Senators because I do not believe we did the job the Senate asked us to do thoroughly," he said yesterday.
Olupitan said that other than three days of public hearing in which some government officials, Atiku, and EFCC Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu appeared; and three other days of meeting, there was nothing the Senate Committee did to warrant a report to the Chamber.
"I objected to the appearance of Ribadu because we did not need him but I was over-ruled and when he came, he only repeated most of what he said in the EFCC report that was before us. Atiku came and told us his side of the story and mentioned the President and we did not invite him to tell us his side. How can we hear one side and not hear the other? And yet we are writing a report,"Olupitan added.
Other members of the Upper House warned that today will be an interesting one because of the issues Olupitan raised.
On phone yesterday, the Chairman of the Senate Ad-hoc Committee that investigated the activities of PTDF, Victor Ndoma-Egba, declined to speak on the report he is to submit today.
Ndoma-Egba declined to say if his committee recommended the sanctioning of the President and his deputy, even Olupitan will not speak on this aspect.
Following the report of the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Legal matters last August, the Senate had mandated the Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the activities of the PTDF since its inception.
When he appeared last December to defend himself, Atiku asked the 13-member committee to find out why the expenditures of the PTDF, the Education Trust Fund (ETF) and the Ecological Fund had not been subjected to the due process of appropriation by the National Assembly as required by law.
The Vice President who appeared before the committee in the company of his eldest son, Adamu Atiku Abubakar, described the allegations made against him by the EFCC as baseless, unsubstantiated and calculated to stop him from contesting the 2007 general elections.
Although he could not read the aspect of the speech concerning the alleged N30 billion released to the PTDF during debate on third term, Atiku presented the entire document containing the allegation to the panel.
He said: "Distinguished Senators, on the 10th of May, 2006, at the height of the evil tenure elongation plot, the PTDF requested, under circumstances that were at best cloudy, for N20 billion for its projects as well as the immediate release of N10 billion.
"The request was made by the PTDF management and approved by the president on the same day. There is no evidence that the 20billion naira was released to the PTDF and there is nothing to indicate that the approval of the Federal Executive Council was sought and obtained for both amounts. You may wish to investigate what happened to the N20 billion, where was it placed and what was it used for?"
The Vice President also demanded that the following issues be looked into by the committee.
His words: "As at December 2005, the PTDF had N20 billion naira and $150 million in fixed deposit, N533million and $6.3 million in its current account. Five months after, only N12.9 billion remained of the N20 billion. You may want to find out how that money was expended and what happened to the foreign exchange component".
Atiku also wanted the committee to request for the Auditor-General's report on the PTDF from January to June 2006, saying
"that audit report is quite revealing and I believe that your investigations will not be complete without it".
Atiku also wanted the committee to ask the Central Bank of Nigeria to disclose how much was paid into the PTDF consolidated account since 1999 as well as providing data on all lodgements into and withdrawals from the PTDF consolidated account since 1999 and who authorised such withdrawals.
On the allegation that his son was one of the directors of Moffas Shipping, the Vice president said it was not true pointing out that there were so many Adamu Abubakars in this world and that the EFCC would have done better if the EFCC asked the Corporate Affairs Commission to provide more document that would show the name of Adamu Atiku Abubakar. Atiku who faulted all allegations against him in a presentation that lasted over an hour said all the
allegations were "baseless, malicious and they are meant to prevent me from offering myself for service to the nation at the highest level. You must therefore dismiss them".
In the document he tendered, Atiku listed what he called "a beehive of irregularities" going on in the PTDF in recent times and requested the committee to ask questions about them. He enumerated the alleged irregularities as the establishment of an institute of science and technology in the FCT; registration of Galaxy Backbone Plc; purchase of computers for civil servants and note purchase agreement between UBA and other banks and PTDF.
Other irregularities Atiku claimed were going on in the PTDF are the Fund's bank deposit and interest rates; approval limit for expenditure of PTDF funds; contract award to PDP national working committee members; Award of PTDF contracts to the president's aides and PDP National Working Committee members.
He said that "within this year, the PTDF had awarded contracts for ICT projects; and that in absolute violation of PTDF mandate, the Fund was directed to dole out one billion naira to the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria, (DICON) and the purchase of vehicles."
|
advertisement