By SAM EYOBOKA and OLAYINKA LATONA

LAGOS State branch of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, has admonished the Federal Government to urgently establish structures that adequately tackle high profile corruption among politicians and public office holders before attempting to implement its avowed removal of fuel subsidy.

Addressing newsmen in Lagos, ahead of a plan-ned symposium on Christian unity, PFN Lagos State chairman, Apostle Alex Bamgbala cautioned the Goodluck Jonathan administration against a hasty removal of oil subsidy when it has not put in place adequate mechanism to cushion the effect on the already impo-verished people of the country.

“There is nothing wrong with the proposed removal of oil subsidy as long as the removal will not negatively affect the fortunes of the Nigerian people who had been at the wrung of all governmental economic policies over the years,” Apostle Bamgbala said, adding “subsidy has been systematically removed over the years but where are the promised benefits?”

The PFN boss admitted that the issue is a very sensitive one, saying; “if the subsidy must be removed it should be done carefully with adequate consultation with all sectors of the economy especially the Labour which is the mouth piece of the nation’s work force, majority of whom will interpret government’s current moves as another attempt to take away the recently approved minimum wage.

“The government must tell the nation why the subsidy is being removed and what will be done with the gains of the removal. Over the years, subsidy has been removed systematically but where are the benefits? Gains from previous withdrawal of subsidy have been going to private hands in trillions and those are the people importing petroleum products”, he advised.

On the level of corruption in the corruption, the apostle admitted that the monster had contributed immensely to the stunt-ed growth of the nation in the last 51 years, urging Nigerians therefore, to co-operate with the anti-graft agencies, esp-ecially the EFCC to fish out the bad eggs amon-gst us.

“It is true that the EFCC had been described by many Nigerians as a toothless bulldog, we be-lieve that the transformational process of the Jon-athan administration is already catching up with the agency and very soon Nigerians will beg-in to see the manifestation”, he said.