By Akinwale Kasali
Rights Group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to urgently begin action as regards his promise to fight corruption by probing the $2.1 billion and N3.1 trillion Subsidy Payment allegedly missing and unaccounted for between 2017 and 2019.
SERAP in a statement through its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, urged President Tinubu to set up a Presidential panel of enquiry to promptly probe the grim allegations that $2.1bn and N3.1tn public funds of oil revenue, budgeted as fuel subsidy payments, are missing and unaccounted between 2016 and 2019, as documented by the Auditor-General of the Federation.
The organisation told the President to “name and shame anyone suspected to be responsible for the alleged widespread and systemic corruption in the use of oil revenues and the management of public funds budgeted as fuel subsidy, and to ensure their effective prosecution as well as the full recovery of any proceeds of crime.”
It also urged the President “to promptly, thoroughly, independently, transparently and effectively probe all fuel subsidies paid by successive governments since the return of democracy in 1999, and to use any recovered proceeds of crime as palliatives to address the impact of any subsidy removal on poor Nigerians.”
It would be recalled that SERAP’s Deputy Director had in a letter dated June 3, 2023, said, “There is a legitimate public interest in ensuring justice and accountability for these serious allegations. There will be no economic growth or sustainability without accountability for these human rights crimes.”
The organisation urged Tinubu to urgently act to follow due process of law in any policy to remove fuel subsidy, ensure that suspected perpetrators of these crimes against Nigerians are brought to justice and full recovery of any missing public funds.
