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#Post#: 33--------------------------------------------------
Minister denies awarding contracts to indicted firms
DIR By: Ebenezer
Date: July 26, 2013, 7:38 pm
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The Minister of Petroleum Resources, DiezaniAlison-Madueke, on
Thursdaydenied that some companiesindicted by the House of
Representatives over fuel subsidy scam were awarded new
contracts to import fuel.
Alison-Madueke spoke with State House Correspondents at the
Presidential Villa in Abuja.
According to her, there is no way the companies indicted will
have been patronised by the Petroleum Products Pricing and
Regulatory Authority (PPRA).
The minister said that all successful companies penciled down
for the importation of fuel were thoroughly screened before
selection.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Alison-Madueke was
in the villa to attend the meeting between President Goodluck
Jonathanand the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association
(NBA).
"All companies were vetted carefully and only companies that
were cleared were put on the list, she said.
Speaking on the Petroleum Industry Bill before the National
Assembly, Alison-Madueke said the progress made in its passage
was in tandem with the expectations of the executive.
"As different stakeholders gothrough the bill, there will be
different views.
"There will always be different stakeholders whoseviews are
brought to bear when there is a document ofsuch critical
importance.
"Once it enters the purview of the legislature, it is expected
that different viewswill be heard.
"At the end of the day, the expectation is that the document
that comes out will represent a fairly win-win situation for all
stakeholders for the good of the entire economy and the entire
polity, she said.
The minister said she was invited by the President to attend the
meeting with the NBA, because of the importance of some of the
legal policies in the oil and gas sector.
She said the NBA, which was a critical stakeholder in the
country, considered the PIB as "a very critical piece of
legislation" because of its far reaching implications on the
countrys oil and gas sector.
"It is an amalgamation of 16 existing laws in the oil and gas
sector which have now been refined and repositioned to hopefully
take Nigeria in this sector into the next 30 years and beyond.
"We will like to see it move forward, she said.
Also speaking, the NBA President, Okey Wali (SAN), said the
meeting with the President discussed some issues bordering on
security,economy, the rule of law, andthe Judiciary.
"We thought we should haveaudience with the President and
express our concerns onsome issues and then the President
graciously took theissues and addressed them.
"We talked about the issue ofthe independence and funding for
the judiciary.
"We talked about the rule of law because we believe that it is a
strong issue in any civilised society and we talked about the
economy, Wali said.
Wali said the NBA acknowledged and appreciated the fact that
Jonathan's administration is working.
He, however, stressed the need for the effects of the work to
trickle down and affect the common man positively.
"The government is working because we have lots of reports, but
our concern is also the impact on the average Nigerian.
"It is not good enough to have the statistics, but we will like
it to be moved to the next level where the average Nigerian gets
the impact of what the government is doing, he said.
Wali said the delegation expressed the association's concern
over the crisis in Rivers and appealed to the President to do
all that he could lawfully do to ensure that peace returned to
the state.
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