By Hector Igbikiowubo & Emmanuel Aziken
Posted to the Web: Tuesday, September 26, 2006

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Edmund Dakouro declared that no money was missing from the proceeds as suggested by the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation.

The organisation had said that “contrary to the enabling law, only $145 million of the $700 million realised in the 2002/2003 bidding visual was remitted to the PTDF fund account”.

However, Dr. Dakouro in a statement through NNPC’s chief statement, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma said.: “Our records show that prior to 2000, signature bonus on discretionary blocks allocation ranged on the average within the band of $2 million to $10m per block with a maximum recorded amount of $30 million for a block.

As a result of the new approach (open competitive bidding) Nigerian government now realizes high premium in term of economic value. For instance, in the 2000 Bid round (the subject matter of the allegation) a total signature bonus of $724 million (excluding other premium payable reaching certain stages of production) was offered for the 10 blocks bidded in the round. This gave an average of $72 million per block with the block (i.e. OPL 250) attracting an offer of $200 million
“Under section 1(b) of PTDF Act, all signature bonuses are paid into the PTDF account. These funds are to be applied for purposes of training Nigerians in fields related to the oil and gas industry.

“At the time the PTDP was established it was not envisaged that huge amount of money could be realised from signature bonuses.
“Consequently, following the 2000 Bid Round, in which large sums of money were offered it became evident that the money realised from the above stated 2000 Bid Round were far in excess of what was reasonably required for training.

“It is on this note that the office of the Petroleum Adviser in December 2000 drew the attention of Mr. President to the money, realised and sought for an arrangement that would benefit other sectors of the economy.

“Mr. President further directed that the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Governor of CBN should deal with the issue raised by the Petroleum Adviser as appropriate. Consequently, the Government decided to limit the amount of money payable directly to the PTDF account with UBA to $100 million in any year.

The Federal Ministry of Finance acting in accordance with the rules made pursuant to section 23 of the Finance (Control and Management) Act and as permitted under Section 3 of the PTDF Act, established an account designated as PTDF Reserve Accounts held by the CBN and managed by the Accountant General of the Federation in CBN, Lagos and Abuja (for Naira payment) and FGN Reserves Account in New York (foreign payments). This arrangement is further supported by section 80(3) of the constitution.

“Following from the above it is obvious that licencing round process/procedure does not lend itself to swift and simplistic analysis as such could be misleading and dangerously so”.

Already the Senate is considering probing the activities of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), the honey pot that threw up the lurid financial disclosures now generating bad blood between President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice-President Atiku Abubakar. The Senate probe follows the recommendation of its Committee on Judiciary which was mandated to advise the Senate on the procedure to be adopted in treating the Administrative Panel of Inquiry Report which indicted the Vice-President of corruption.

The Senate Committee in its recommendations, however, advised the upper legislative chamber to keep the report of the Administrative Panel in abeyance.
The Committee’s recommendation, Vanguard gathered, was upon the Committee’s position that the “Senate cannot sit as a court on appeal on the report of the Administrative Panel of Inquiry based on Section 137 (i) of the Constitution.”

Besides, the Committee in its report argues that the Senate standing rules guard the Senate against considering an issue which is in court.
Section 53 of the Senate standing rules upon which the Committee took the decision states: “Reference shall not be made to any matter on which a Judicial decision is pending, in such a way as might in the opinion of the President of the Senate prejudice the interest of parties thereto.”

In deciding to probe the activities of the PTDF, the Committee reasoned that the Senate would be acting according to its powers based on Section 80 of the Constitution which stipulates that no money should be withdrawn out of the public treasury without the requisite approval of the National Assembly.
“There is a public expectation on the Senate to do something on this and the Senate would not shy away from doing its duty,” one Senate source privy to the report said yesterday.

Senate sources, however, confirmed that as at last night, the Senate had not decided on which platform the probe of the PTDF would be carried out.
Some members of the Committee on Judiciary were rooting for an ad-hoc Committee of the Senate to be constituted to probe the PTDF while some others were against it, saying the responsible Committees of the Senate be given the job.

The public has been awash with claims and counter claims by aides of both President Obasanjo and his deputy over surreptitious withdrawals by aides and acquaintances of both men from the accounts of the PTDF. The present management of the Fund had only weekend admitted that some wrongs were committed by the fund in the past.

Besides President Obasanjo and Vice-President Atiku, national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Ahmadu Ali, has also been mentioned as being a beneficiary of the finances of the PTDF.

Welcoming the decision yesterday, national coordinator of the South-South Elements Progressive Union (SSEPU), Mr. Joseph Ambakederimo, charged the Senate to widen its net to bring back all those who he alleged had escaped from the country.

Heads must roll —ATURU

Meanwhile, Lagos lawyer, Mr Bamidele Aturu, has called for sanctions against those involved in the misuse of PTDF. In a statement yesterday, Mr Aturu said: “Honest Nigerians must be shocked by the insistence of the Executive Secretary of the PTDF, Alhaji Adamu Waziri, that he had no apologies for violating public funds expenditure guidelines by donating the sum of N5 million belonging to the fund to the Chairman of PDP. I do not blame him at all. Rather, it is the EFCC and the ICPC that must explain to us why the Executive Secretary and the Chairman of PDP have not both been prosecuted for this sordid and embarrassing deed.

“We now know that those donations and endowments made by private persons are taken from public resources and used to purchase undeserved titles, honours and accolades. Such purchases, no doubt, do but dubious credit to our ‘market economy’. This ‘market economy’ where people buy statuses with money belonging to our suffering people is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to stand.

“The EFCC needs to rise to the occasion and follow the leads being provided in the presidential scandal. I have always known that more dirty revelations would be made and that more people would be fingered.

The problem is that no head is rolling at the moment. The point must be made that we would not teach or learn any lesson if we allow those implicated to strut about as if they are above the law. We must get to the root of this matter once and for all. This is the only way to re-assure our people that we are not dispensing selective justice.

“I must commend the Chairman of PDP for speedily returning the money. That, however, is not enough. He needs to explain to the law enforcement agencies how he got the money and whether he had got such moneys in the past. It would then be the duty of the agencies to decide whether they intend to press charges or engage in plea bargaining to save time, energy and resources.

“I also call on the EFCC to investigate the sources of funds for all endowments, donations, grants and scholarships awarded to any of our public institutions in the last 10 years. No one has a right to use our money to buy titles and honours. For the Executive Secretary of PTDF, if he cannot apologise to the people he should learn to hold his peace. In other societies, he would have resigned or been showed the way out.”

Presidency okays probe

The presidency has welcomed the proposed probe of the PTDF by the Senate, Mr Akin Osuntokun, Presidential Adviser on Political Matters has said. “The probe would separate the facts from falsehood,” he said yesterday, insisting that “such a probe would be in the national interest and would avail Nigerians the opportunity of knowing who did what and how.”

Similarly, Osuntokun, responding to claims by the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation that some funds released to the Vice President’s aides during the 2003 electioneering period were with a view to check-mating the threat posed by Chief Alex Ekwueme who was contested against Obasanjo at the PDP primaries, said nothing could be farther from the truth. He alleged that Vice President Atiku sabotaged the presidential campaign organisation set up by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2003.