Magu, who spoke before the Kayode Oladele- led Committee on Financial Crimes during the agency’s budget defence also said former minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke and a businessman believed to be her close associate, Kola Aluko, are persons of interest to the EFCC.
The EFCC boss said this when he responded to questions asked by a member of the committee, Razak Atunwa who had earlier asked whether the two ministers and Aluko were included in the investigative list of the anti-graft agency. “Very soon, we will go into the petroleum industry,” was Magu’s reply.
He said such an investigation requires that “we have to build capacity, we have to bring in experts to enable us tackle what we are doing properly and the investigation must be conducted properly. We have internal lawyers and external lawyers; we have to pay insurance.”
Meanwhile, Speaker Yakubu Dogara has said the National Assembly will soon begin work on its own version of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
The speaker, made this known at a courtesy call by the international board of Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) at the National Assembly yesterday. He also said the bill, which is in final stages, will be given expeditious consideration on the floor of both chambers of the National Assembly.
Dogara told the delegation that in line with the resolve of the House of Representatives to fully cooperate with President Muhammadu Buhari to implement reforms in the oil, gas and mining sectors, the House will give both sectors priority attention.
“We have repeatedly, called on the executive to present reform proposals in the petroleum sector. However, we may not continue to wait for an executive bill on this subject matter as we are prepared to introduce the National Assembly’s version; what we believe should be the legal framework for the oil and gas sector in Nigeria.”
“We cannot continue to take the blame for non-passage of the petroleum reform legislation in Nigeria. As I speak with you, work on our own version has reached advanced stage and hopefully, we hope to introduce it in both chambers of the National Assembly. If it happens that the executive transmits its own version of its own vision of the oil sector, we have ample provision in the House Rules for us to merge the two together. We will not continue to wait.”
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