Oil Probe: Coalition Hails Abbas for Dissolving Downstream, Midstream Petroleum Committee 

Foremost civil society organizations (CSOs) in the oil and gas sector have applauded the Speaker of House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, for dissolving the House Joint Ad hoc Committee of Downstream and Midstream Petroleum.

The joint committee, headed by Rep. Ikenga Ugochinyere (Imo) and Rep. Henry Okojie (Edo), was disbanded Monday via a statement signed by the spokespersons of the House, Rep. Akin Rotimi (Jnr).

Until now, the committee was tasked with investigation of alleged importation of adulterated petroleum products, the non-availability of crude oil for domestic refineries and other critical energy security issues.

But since inauguration, the committee had been enmeshed in controversies which culminated in serious divisions amongst the members of the 10th House, with some calling for the head of the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari and the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Shmed, while others called for an impartial probe and warned colleagues against partisanship.

In a press statement on Tuesday, the Coalition for Energy Transformation, Integrity and Transparency (CETIT), made up of over 28 leading CSOs in the industry, said Speaker Abbas has written his name in the “golden book of the National Assembly” by rising to save the institution of the international embarrassment that was looming.

The statement was jointly signed by Mr. Godknows Joseph, Comrade Ayoola Daramola and Mr. Musa Akilu.

The Coalition bemoaned the perceived “partisanship of the joint committee” as it were, saying: “It was also wrong for members of the House to preemptively take positions even before the probe could be done and concluded. This was going to set the entire House of Representatives on fire and it was of great danger to the institution of the National Assembly, so revered.

“Under normal circumstances, the House members should have been patriotic enough to place national interest above their personal interests, but everyone seemed to be speaking or acting according to what his or her interest was, while the committee was also perceived to be pursuing vendetta and the whole essence was defeated ab initio.

“But for the swift intervention and the nationalistic approach of His Excellency, Hon. Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, the whole thing would have snowballed into anarchy and the entire National Assembly institution would have been brought to international embarrassment, while the meat of the matter would have been left untouched, and the original intent why the committee was set up would have been defeated.”

According to the coalition, “The decision of the Speaker was timely. We had met at the weekend in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and came to agreement to officially address the press on Tuesday and unearth what we felt about the joint committee and some members of the House and why the leadership of the House must, as a matter of urgent national importance, purge the House of such committee and allow fresh and professional panel to handle the investigation. Failure to do this, we were going to mobilize thousands of our members in Abuja to occupy the National Assembly anytime the committee sits.

“But we woke up this morning to the good news that the pragmatic and visionary Speaker Abbas has disbanded the committee. The coalition and the entire Nigerians are grateful for this. The Speaker has written his name in golden book of the National Assembly, and this goes a long way to reaffirm that Nigerians can trust the 10th House. It portrays a House that has integrity. The 10th House is indeed the People’s House,” the coalition added.

While charging the Speaker to constitute a panel made up of neutral and impeccable Members, that would handle the probe with transparency and with unbiased minds; the Coalition pledged total support for the yet to be constituted committee and the Abbas-led House, saying, Nigeria would be great under him.