EFCC must investigate Allison-Madueke – CACOL

WALE AKINOLACoalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the alleged corrupt activities levelled against the Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Allison-Madueke without delay.

In a peaceful protest to the EFCC Lagos zonal office, the group’s Chairman, Debo Adeniran, said that commission should prove to the world that it has not lost its integrity by diligently investigating the allegation against the Petroleum Minister and adequately prosecute her if she was found culpable of the offence.

According to him, “The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) as a group of civil society, community-based and other non-governmental organisations with the objective of fighting corruption and corrupt persons by any means possible at all levels in Nigeria is aware of so many calls on your commission to urgently commence a probe into the various allegations levelled against the person of the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke; such allegation which include reckless abuse of office, wastage of the nation’s resources under the

guise of performing her official functions, engagement in questionable deals, connivance with some oil and gas multinationals to rob Nigeria of large chunk of money, direct stealing of nation’s money, using her position and siphoning the nation’s earnings to foreign lands for personal interest.

“Since the appointment of the said Minister, the country is reported to have lost billions of dollars through the aforementioned avenues. So, much noise has been made from various quarters which even include that of House of Representatives of recent, without any significant response whatsoever. An innovation from the hallowed chambers to the minister was not

honoured. We refuse, however to believe that there exists any clique of the ‘untouchables’ to which she probably belongs and this is why we are joining our voices to others to demand that your highly esteemed, responsible and responsive commission commence without delay the process of probing the office of the minister, beaming your investigative searchlight on those areas of her activities.”

While receiving the petition on behalf of EFCC, the Lagos Head of Operation, Ilyasu Kwarbai, assured the group that the commission would investigate the allegations levelled against the minister and get to the root of the matter.

He said, “This is the first time the EFCC will be receiving petition against the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke and we are going to do justice to this petition.

It is not enough to receive a petition but it better to treat it diligently. We have to go to other institutions as regards this matter and get documents on how she transacts. We will also go to Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to verify certain things regarding the allegations, after which the suspect will be invited for thorough investigation.

I will table your petition before the Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde so as to treat it with the urgency it requires.”