President of the Senate, David Mark has asked the Senate
Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) to increase the pace of their probe on
the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and the probe of Malabu Oil.
This
followed a Point of Order raised by Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi (Ekiti
North) on the undue delay in passing the PIB and investigation into
activities surrounding the sale of Malabu Oil.
The Senate
committed the PIB to its committee on Petroleum (Upstream) on March 7,
2013 for further legislative work while the probe of Malabu Oil was
assigned to the same committee in July 2013. Adetunmbi in his Point of
Order told the Senate that he was at a function where the issue of the
PIB and Malabu Oil were raised. He said that he was asked why the Senate
had not done work on the PIB and investigation into Malabu Oil.
He
noted that participants at the function insisted that the massive
corruption going in the country’s oil and gas sector was as a result of
none passage of the PIB. The lawmaker said the participants at the forum
believed that the passage of the PIB will go a long way in curbing
corrupt practices going on in the sector.
Adetunmbi added, “On
coming back from the conference I had to check my records and I found
out that the Petroleum Industry Bill after debate was committed to the
appropriate committee on Thursday March 7, 2013. “It will be one year
next month. As it stands nothing seems to be going on about the bill.
“The
Malabu oil probe was committed to relevant committee in July 2013 about
seven months ago. “It may interest this Senate that an international
extractive agency advocacy group did a letter on July 6, 2013 to the
Italian and Netherlands government requesting for public investigation
of the role of companies from both countries as part of public
accountability in the two countries.
“The same letter was written
to the European Union (EU). “The Italian, the Netherlands and EU
parliament is about concluding public investigation and the outcome of
the investigation will be made public very soon. “I think as Senators,
it is a privilege that we should know what is going on so that the
reputation of this parliament is not called to question.
“This is
because I fear a situation where if the report of European parliaments
is reporting issues that affect our economy and our own parliament, the
apex parliament in Nigeria is seen not to do what it is supposed to do
one year after I believe it will affect all of us collectively.”
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