Protests rock NASS against House Ad-hoc committee on sale of stolen crude oil in China
By Haruna Salami
The George Uboh Whistleblowers Network on Tuesday protested to the National Assembly against Hon. Mark Gbillah-led Ad-hoc Committee on the sale of 48 million barrels of stolen crude oil sold in China.
The protesters said Hon. Mark Gbillah-led Ad hoc Committee on the sale of 48M barrels of stolen crude oil sold in China was unnecessary since the case is now before a court.
They contended that the mandate of the Ad-hoc Committee was against the principles that there must be a petition on a controversial matter before a Committee is set up for purposes of investigation.
They said, there was never a petition to formally legitimize the Ad-hoc Committee hearing on the matter, despite that Hon. Mark Gbillah was verbally briefed by Dr. Georg Uboh’s Whistleblowers Network.
He said: “The scheduled Hon. Mark Gbillah-led ad hoc committee hearing on the illegal sale of stolen 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s crude oil in China is in violation of two principles.
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“The whistleblowers who furnished Hon. Mark Gbillah the information germane to the 48 million barrels of crude oil stolen did not file any petition to the National Assembly giving rise to the hearing, and neither were they called as witnesses to testify during the hearing.
He said the Whistleblowers Network is a civil society organization with the mandate to fight corruption, hence, he expressed surprise that their attention was not drawn or were they called as witness during the hearing.
“I Dr. George Uboh, a known whistleblower whose petition to the National Assembly led to the sack of former EFCC Chairman, Lamorde, can authoritatively state that the National Assembly does not delve into any matter unless a petition is filed and laid on the floor.
He accused the Ad-hoc Committee Chairman of greed for ignoring process leading to Public hearing on issues which he knows too well.
They further stated that there are two court matters initiated in the FCT High Court and Federal High Court against Malam Mele Kyari, NNPC Limited’s group CEO to account for the proceeds of the sale and the National Assembly respectively.
The sale of the stolen 48 million barrels would generated $2.4 billion USD at $50 per barrel or $4.8 billion USD at $100 per barrel according to the protesters.
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