By Levinus Nwabughiogu
The Chairman, House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating all crude oil exports from 2014 till date as well as illegal sale of 48 million barrels of Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude in China in 2015, Mark Gbillah, has vowed to deploy all tools to recover the alleged loss of $2.4 billion revenue accrued to the government in the sales.
Gbillah, who also said the committee would unravel the facts behind the allegations made by whistleblowers, gave the assurance at the inauguration of his committee in Abuja yesterday.
It will be recalled that the House last week, via a motion byIbrahim Isiaka, resolved to investigate the issues.
the lawmaker said the assignment would take them to various parts of the world, including the United States of America, Mexico and China, in search of useful information.
He said the amount involved was too huge to be ignored by any responsible parliament in times of economic crunch.
He said: “Like I said initially, this is the House Adhoc Committee to investigate the alleged loss of 2.4 billion dollars from the sale of 48 million barrels of crude oil. It’s also mandated by the House to investigate crude oil sales from 2014 till date and whistleblower information and recoveries and expenditure of these recoveries.
“So, in a summary, these are the key issues of this Adhoc Committee as mandated by the House to look into and I want to say that by the leave of the speaker and members of House of Representatives, I have been assigned as the chairman of this committee. It is a show by the leadership of the house of their willingness and transparency in arriving at truth behind whatever has transpired in this circumstance because allegation was raised in 2020 by a whistleblower who alleged that Nigeria’s crude was diverted and sold allegedly by certain individuals who were in government who were in the nation’s oil corporation who were in the security agencies and who were also cronies of those in Authority at the time.
“Now, the Committee takes very seriously issues that have to do with allegations. We owe Nigerians the benefit of doubt in line with our Constitution. “
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