To investigate export of rotten yam tubers to U.S.
• Don’t drag Nigeria into your predicament, FG tells Diezani
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday approved N26 billion to
facilitate the payment of accumulated debt owed electricity Distribution
Companies (DISCOs) for power consumed by Ministries, Departments and Agencies
(MDAs).
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola told State House
Correspondents after Council meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu
Buhari that the amount was below the N70 billion claim by the DISCOs as debt
owed them by the Federal Government.
He explained that the amount is expected to be deducted from the N500
billion which the companies are currently owing the Federal Government as its
share of their electricity revenue earnings.
According to Fashola, the amount approved for payment by FEC is what has
been verifiable after the claim by the DISCOS.
The minister argued that the electricity companies may have lumped up
debts owned by some state governments and other organisations not owned by the
Federal Government to have arrived at the N70 billion debt claim.
The Federal Government has vowed to launch a thorough investigation of
the individuals and company who facilitated the export of rotten yam tubers to
the United States (U.S.) from Nigeria.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbe, said government
will also investigate the Quarantine Department of the Ministry of Agriculture
to find out why the poor consignment left the shores of Nigeria.
While absolving Nigeria of blame in the poor consignment shipped to the
U.S., Ogbe said the development should rather be placed on the doorstep of the
private individuals who facilitated the export.
He told reporters that: “The ministry is not an exporter, the exporters
are private people.”
The Federal Government has asked former minister of Petroleum Resources,
Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke to face the charges preferred against her in the
United Kingdom (UK) rather than engage in attempts to drag Nigeria into her
predicament.
The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar
Malami after the meeting shrugged off Diezani’s appeal saying that would
interfere with and jeopardize the British Government’s ongoing investigation
in the UK.
“If Nigeria feels strongly that there is need to bring Allison-Madueke
here to face charges of corruption, government will not hesitate to do that.”
The Attorney-General explained that the Nigerian government was doing
something, contrary to insinuations suggesting otherwise, “especially on issues
of corruption and litigation in Nigeria and outside the country.
He also dismissed fears that the former minister may not get fare
hearing in Nigeria when she eventually returns to Nigeria.
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