Shocking! Jonathan may dump Ribadu Report

Following the confusion that characterised the submission of the Nuhu Ribadu-led Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, PRSTF report, the Federal Government may dump the report.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe while briefing newsmen on Thursday said the committee did not complete its assignment.
Okupe explained that the aim of President Goodluck Jonathan was for the committee to do a holistic investigation into the challenges Nigeria's oil and gas industry have faced in the past 10 years but said the committee transferred the job of verifications and reconciliation back to the federal government.
He said though one of the major terms of reference of the committee was to work with consultants and experts to determine and verify all petroleum upstream and downstream revenues (taxes, royalties, etc) due and payable to the federal government of Nigeria, the committee left this aspect undone.  


The Special assistant referred to paragraph four of the covering letter which states; “The data used in this report was presented by various stakeholders who made submissions to the Task Force of our assignment at various dates, which have been disclosed in relevant sections of the report.  Due to time frame of the assignment some of the data used could not be independently verified and the Task Force recommends that the government should conduct such necessary verifications and reconciliations”.
“Unfortunately and most regrettably, this paramount duty of the PRSTF committee could not be accomplished as stated in paragraph four of the covering signed by chairman Ribadu and Secretary of the committee. Okupe noted.
Furthermore, he said the Ribadu committee had already issued a disclaimer to their own report which will make it quite impossible under the country's laws to indict or punish anybody except and until the federal government fully verifies and reconciles the facts as recommended by the committee in its submission to the government.
He however added that work will be done to rectify the incompleteness of the document saying that a white paper will be issued and its recommendations fully implemented by the Jonathan administration.
While decrying the attempts by some people to discredit the efforts of the President in sanitising the Nigerian oil sector, the spokesperson has this to say.
“There is a major public disinformation deliberately calculated to overheat the polity and cause disaffection and opprobrium against the President for doing what is right, what is needful and profitable to the nation”.
He also said that Mallam Ribadu took to his social media page(facebook) to make claims that he resisted overtures to compromise the report and challenged him to reveal such people if indeed it was true.
“His claim of an overture to him to compromise the report is perfidious and false. We respectfully enjoin Mallam Ribadu to be patriotic enough to name the proponents of this compromise. If Ribadu claims that by serving on the committee he is on the side of the Nigerian people, on whose side is President Jonathan whose idea it was in the first place to set up the Task Force and approved the appointment of Mallam Ribadu as chairman of the committee.
On Friday last week during the submission of the report, there was drama and confusion as two members of the Ribadu-led committee Bernard Otti and Steven Orosanye publicly rejected the report saying the former EFCC boss did not carry them along.
Should the President go ahead to dump the report, it promises to present his administration another negative perception especially with the initial fears that the Presidency merely set up the panel to buy time over the sleaze in the oil industry.