By KUNLE KALEJAYE
Benin City-based non-governmental organisation, NGO, Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, has called on President Gooddluck Jonathan, to release the audit report on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC without any further delay.

The call follows revelations from the ongoing probe of NNPC, by the Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Appropriation and Finance.

ANEEJ said the release of the NNPC audit will salvage whatever may be left of the administration’s image in the eyes of Nigerians and the international community.

The Executive Director of ANEEJ, Mr. David Ugolor, said: “We have been calling on President Goodluck Jonathan and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to release the Audit report commissioned since July last year but we were not taken seriously. Now, look at the startling revelations that keep tumbling in from the Joint Senate Committee sittings probing the operations of the NNPC. This is a national embarrassment.”

Ugolor also commended the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, particularly the Joint Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Finance and Appropriation for carrying out the novel oversight function, urging them not to be deterred as Nigerians are solidly behind them.

“We do not want to take the media version of the report yet that is why we are renewing our call on President Jonathan to do the needful. We learnt that the report has been hidden all these while; this is not good for a country that has signed on to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, EITI, and was early this year, recognized as EITI compliant country. This is time for Jonathan to act, otherwise, citizens and the international community might be left to believe that his administration is a bed of corruption,” Ugolor asserted.

ANEEJ Policy Officer, Mr. Innocent Edemhanria, added, “As a group, working in the area of revenue transparency over the years, which is committed to reversing the resource curse phenomenon of Nigeria, particularly in the Niger Delta, we are appalled that Mr. President and the Minister of Petroleum Resources could afford to keep the Audit report on the NNPC under the carpet over the past one year.

“But for the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Executive arm of government would have been carrying on with the sleaze in the NNPC. Nigerians have been vindicated with the revelations from the Senate Joint Committee that government knows those who have been shortchanging Nigerians regarding the fuel subsidy. Yet, they boast of still wanting to proceed with the removal of subsidy. This is a shame.” Edemhanria emphasizes.

The Senate probe has revealed the sleaze surrounding petroleum subsidy in Nigeria, as the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Magnus Abe, disclosed that some 100 companies in the downstream sector and in construction, shared over N1.426 trillion between January and August 2011 alone.

A 41-page Audit report on the NNPC, and other social and on-line media, have further revealed that the NNPC had ‘deliberately’ turned the corporation into an established drain pipe on the nations’ oil and gas earnings, and an avenue for perpetrating corruption and fraud even as it released a leaked version of the damning Audit report.