EFCC Awaits N’ Assembly’s Report On Oil Sector Probe

LamordeTHE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has said that it is awaiting the reports of the investigations being carried out by the National Assembly, before taking any action on its probe into the oil sector and the fuel subsidy regime .

Chairman of the Commission, Ibrahim Lamorde, stated this at a meeting with a Coalition of Civil Society Organisations,(CSOs) led by African Network for Environment and Economic Justice, (ANEEJ) yesterday in Abuja. The CSOs were on a courtesy call to the agency.

Lamorde, who said that EFCC was ready to partner the CSOs in its effort to investigate the oil sector, made it clear that the agency would not sponsor any organisation.

He stated that the Commission was desirous of getting information from other CSOs  that would enable it  achieve the mandate of looking at the subsidy regime and its management in the past.

Spokesman to the Commission, Wilson Uwajaren, quoted Lamorde as saying: “I am aware that the House has concluded its proceedings but we also know that the Senate probe is still on-going. We are waiting for these two reports and we would merge their reports with the KPMG report”.

The EFCC Chairman said the Commission has been able to get a lot of materials from independent sources that were  involved at different levels of the administration of the subsidy regime. These,  he said,  included shipping agencies, Tank farm operators, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA),  Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Customs and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) among others.

In his response , Executive Director of ANEEJ, Rev. David Ugolor, said his organization was one of the leading CSOsworking on revenue transparency in the extractive sector in Nigeria . He said the group came to identify with the leadership of the EFCC and to follow up what EFCC is doing and  to support Lamorde to succeed.