Arewa Youths Join CNPP To Urge EFCC To Reopen Ifeanyi Ubah, Capital Oil Subsidy Fraud Case, Others
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Arewa youths have asked the new chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to reopen abandoned corruption cases against Senator Ifeanyi Ubah who recently defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), particularly the 2013 N43 billion subsidy scam against Senator Ubah and Capital Oil and Gas Limited line with the judgment of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal which cleared the EFCC to continue its investigation and prosecute them.
The youths under the aegis of the Arewa Youth Assembly For Good Leadership also demanded that the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, immediately declares vacant the seat of the Senator after he dumped the political party platform upon which he was elected.
The speaker Arewa Youth Assembly For Good Leadership, Amb. Abdul Danbature, in a statement on Thursday noted that “the continued deflection of elected office holders without first resigning from their office is undemocratic and a cheating on constituencies that elected the politicians.”
Relying on Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), which is specific on removal of defected members of the national assembly while in office, the group said that Nigeria should not be made to look like a banner republic.
“The said section 68 of the constitution unambiguously says that a member of the National Assembly shall vacate his seat being a person whose election to the house was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that he was elected.
“We also frown at the deflection of persons with unresolved corruption allegations to be ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as this gives the party a bad public image”, the group stated.
The group recalled that the new EFCC Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, who assumed office a week ago, had vowed to reposition and refocus the commission for optimal effectiveness, saying abandoned fuel subsidy scams should be revisited.
It noted that “In a particular case, a report into fuel subsidy scheme had accused Capital Oil and its management of large scale subsidy fraud.
“Ifeanyi Ubah was regarded as the largest beneficiary of the multi-billion fuel subsidy scam, led by a small band of company staff to rip the nation of several billions of naira through falsification and forgery.
“In 2012, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation of Fuel Subsidy Payments had identified over 20 companies that allegedly, through multiple fraudulent ploys, received payments for fuel products they never delivered.
“The panel had listed Capital Oil and Gas as the number one amongst the fraudulent firms and the EFCC should revisit this matter in line with the Court of Appeal judgment”, the Arewa youths added.
