A group, the Anti-Corruption Network, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to unmask the masterminds of an unregistered firm, Pinnacle Contractors Ltd that was allegedly given N2.7billion subsidy fund without any proof of importing fuel into the country.
LEADERSHIP had exclusively reported on Saturday, October 28, 2012 that the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) had launched a massive investigation into how the firm received a whopping N2.76billion of the oil subsidy funds without supplying a litre of fuel.
The anti -graft group also handed down a four -day ultimatum to the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, asking her to inform Nigerians how Pinnacle Contractors and other beneficiaries made the list of the subsidy regime.
The group spoke yesterday during a press conference in Abuja through its Executive Secretary, Hon. Dino Melaye.
According to the group, there is compelling need for Okonjo-Iweala to tell Nigerians why ministry of finance and other regulatory agencies released such a whopping amount to an unregistered firm.
The group also threatened to stage protests and occupy headquarters of the Ministries of Finance and Petroleum Resources until Nigerians were told why such ‘mindless looting’ would happen while people were forced to pay more for petroleum products.
It added that the development had raised questions on the management of the fuel subsidy fund by the federal government.
Melaye also stated that the anti-graft movement had conducted search at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on the benefiting firms? after the Ministry of Finance released names of 25 firms? indicted by a Presidential Committee and discovered to that “Pinnacle Contractors was not registered,? yet it picked the money in two tranches to import fuel, which they never did”.
He also said, “Is it not an irony that the Ministry of Finance which ought to be in the know of the status of companies doing business with government released the names of the 25 firms indicted by the Presidential Committee on Verification and Reconciliation of Fuel Subsidy Payments led by the Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank Plc, Mr. Aig Imhoukuede, listing the infractions committed by them and recommended sanctions accordingly.
“The import of that was the tacit acknowledgment by the Finance Minister of the legal existence of Pinnacle Contractors when the contrary is the case.