El-Rufai denies allegationsReps probe donor-agenciesGIVEN the weight of the outcome of the probe into the activities of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) from 1999 to date conducted by the Senate, the chamber has come under immense pressure from stakeholders.Besides, the House of Representatives has directed its Committee on Donor Agencies to critically examine all grants received from donor agencies, with a view to identifying if donor funds were deployed in accordance with international best practice as well as provisions of extant laws and agreements.The House also tasked the committee to articulate an effective manner on how this assistance could complement government efforts on national security and report back to it within four weeks.This was sequel to a motion introduced by the Chairman of the House Committee on Donor Agencies, Eseme Eyiboh who expressed concern that donor agencies deal directly with ministries and state commissioners without consulting with the National Planning Commission, which is the coordinating organ of all donor projects in the country.Also, the House of Representatives yesterday urged the Federal Executive Council and Shell Petroleum Development Company to immediately build and develop the Oloibiri oil well One site into a centre of training for petroleum and tourism- related activities.Members also urged the National Council for Museum and Monuments to forthwith declare Oloibiri well One, in Oloibiri, Ogobia Local Council of Bayelsa State as a national monument, stressing that in October 1956, crude oil was discovered in commercial quantity in the area.The Senate, in July this year, following a motion moved by Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North) raised a seven-man panel to investigate BPE activities.In the report submitted to the Senate, the panel, among other things, reprimanded some past Directors Generals (DGs) including Malam Nasir el-Rufai and Mrs. Irene Chigbue and recommended the sacking of the incumbent DG, Bolanle Onagoruwa. The panel also recommended that some transactions be cancelled.Speaking yesterday after the chairman of the committee had read the recommendations, Senate PresidentDavid Mark noted that the chamber was under pressure but would address the issue in the national interest.He stated: 'We took this report to avoid speculations, insinuations and suspicion from any side since it's been laid since Tuesday. If we didn't take this report today, there would be all kinds of insinuations and speculations.'We will start the debate on it on Wednesday of next week. This is to enable us to read the main report, digest it, go through the findings and then take the recommendations. This is a very sensitive report. There is a lot of pressure. I want to assure you that there is no ethnicity and politics in this report. We will not give in to politics and ethnicity.'But addressing a press conference after the plenary session, the chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Publicity, Enyinnaya Abaribe, said neither the members of the probe panel nor the President of the Senate was under pressure over the report.'What the Senate President said was that it was necessary for the report to be taken today, otherwise, in the usual manner, our people will engage in speculations and most of the times, the speculations would be that the Senate is under pressure and that is why they don't want to take the report.'The report was presented yesterday and we decided to take it today but because of the volume of the report, 177 pages and everything that is contained therein, the Senate president said we should look at the report without any fear or favour, lack of any ethnic colouration. We will defer the debate on the report until Wednesday of next week and I think the debate would be public and live so that Nigerians would have opportunity to see that we do justice to that report', he stated.Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan's request seeking Senate's confirmation of appointment of five Resident Electoral Commissioners in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was referred to the committee on INEC. The nominees include Prof. Jacob Shekwonudu Jatau (Nasarawa State), Baba Abba Yusuf (Borno), Segun Agbaje (Ekiti), Nasir Ayilara (Kwara) and Austine Okojie (Edo).But El-Rufai said yesterday that he 'complied with the BPE Act.'A statement by Muyiwa Adekeye, his Media Advisor, said: 'Malam Nasir el-Rufai is neither surprised nor shocked by the reported recommendations of the Senate's ad-hoc committee that recently investigated the privatisation process. But he authorises this clarification of facts, lest a baseless report should by default be taken seriously. He categorically states that as BPE DG, approvals for privatisation issues were sought and received from the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), then chaired by Vice President Atiku Abubakar. 'That was the requirement of the law, and the BPE's compliance with it during his leadership was total. The Senate Committee is invited to make public any instance - even just one - where he breached the sales approval process.'When Malam El-Rufai appeared before the Senate's ad-hoc committee on privatisation on August 11, 2011, he had no illusions about the results such committees produce, given his previous experience. Prior to El-Rufai's presentation, Ahmed Lawan, chair of the committee, said that the public hearing was not a witch-hunt, and El-Rufai retorted that it was up to the committee to demonstrate that.'Anybody who followed that day's proceedings would recall that the questions asked after El-Rufai's presentation were mainly seeking his advice on how to improve the privatisation process. When Senator Lawan assumed that he had found a smoking gun in the matter of monies retained by the BPE to pay transaction costs, El-Rufai candidly explained the mechanisms and processes of the bidding process that necessitated this operational move that was approved by the NCP on June 24, 2002.'The strange recommendation that he be reprimanded for an offence he did not commit follows a tradition of shoddy investigation that does no credit to the Senate. Legislation and oversight are serious matters, and it is expected that people charged with such functions would truly apply themselves, avail themselves of cognate expertise and exercise due care so that the reports of such proceedings would be suffused with the kind of integrity that begets respect.'When Malam El-Rufai gets a complete copy of the widely-quoted report, he will consider whether additional clarifications and other options, including and not limited to seeking judicial review of every sentence that impugns his public service record and reputation, are required.
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