Malabu Oil Scandal: Lower Chamber plans to halt Ex. President invitation

Ex. Pres. Ebele Goodluck Jonathan

Last week announcement of the intentions of The House of Representatives ad hoc committee on corruption and malpractices to invite the immediate past president, Goodluck Jonathan for questioning over the process that led to the award of oil prospecting license (OPL), was met with backlash in the media.
Information reaching us from the lower chamber of the National Assembly reveals that there are pointers that the former president would no longer appear before the committee.

Hon. Razaq Atunwa, chairman of the committee in his address with newsmen last week thursday, explained that Jonathan may be summoned by the committee because fresh facts emanating from court cases on the controversial Malabu trial seems to have implicated the ex-leader.

A member of the committee who spoke in anonymity said that members of the panel had to back down on summoning Jonathan in the best interest of the country.

He said: “We have reviewed the situation, especially comments from a cross section of opinion leaders and most of us were of the view that we should not heat up the polity. One, the former president has already reacted and denied any dealings with the principal characters in the oil bloc scandal.

“Secondly, the case is in court both in Nigeria and outside the country, so we are not out to humiliate or witch hunt anyone, but we just want to gather information that could help in getting to the bottom of this scandal once and for all.” According to the lawmaker, “What we have resolved now is that we will request the former president to do a paper for us stating what he knows about the oil bloc and we will work with that.

There is no personal interest here, but we are only interested in clearing this mess because right now, our country is a laughing stock internationally. It is a shame.”

“I will say we are not under pressure, but some well-meaning Nigerians have advised and expressed their reservations and we have to reason with them. “Right now, there is relative calm and peace in the Niger Delta and we do not want anything that may trigger another round of crisis in that part of the country. Times are hard and we need peace for development to thrive,” he stated.

Attempts to get Atunwa to confirm the latest development could not yield results as several calls to him could not get through. The House had, by a resolution taken at plenary set up and mandated the Atunwa-led ad hoc committee to, inter alia, conduct a thorough examination of the process and circumstances surrounding OPL 245 and identify culpability of any persons, groups or organisations.