Posted by By ISMAIL OMIPIDAN, Abuja on
Members of the Senate Committee reviewing the Victor Ndoma-Egba report on the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) have resigned.
Members of the Senate Committee reviewing the Victor Ndoma-Egba report on the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) have resigned.
The seven members announced their resignation on Tuesday evening in a letter addressed to the Senate President, Ken Nnamani.
They hinged their action on alleged refusal of the senate leadership to debate the committee's report at the plenary session of the upper legislative chamber. Chairman of the committee, Senate Umaru Tsauri had at the plenary session on Tuesday requested for an extension to allow the committee do a thorough job, while assuring that the report would be ready for debate at Wednesday's session.
Daily Sun gathered that Tsauri who is also chairman of the Senate Business Rule Committee had listed the report for debate on the order paper.
Sources said the senate leadership removed the report from the order paper, allegedly because the committee members were adamant on not changing the recommendation indicting President Olusegun Obasanjo on the PTDF scandal. Sources further disclosed that Senator Ita Giwa had gone to the home of the Senate President Ken Nnamani on Tuesday morning where she appealed to him to ensure that President Obasanjo's indictment is expunged from the PTDF report, saying 'Baba will collapse if this report is released."
A prominent businessman from one of the South eastern states was said to have arrived Nnamani's home a few hours later with plenty of cash, along with some principal officers of the senate. After a meeting with Nnamani, the Senate President was said to have succumbed and then tried to prevail on members of the review committee to expunge Obasanjo's name from the indictment.
The Ndoma-Egba Committee which earlier probed the PTDF scandal had indicted Vice President Atiku Abubakar, recommending that he be sanctioned for abusing his office by aiding and abetting the diversion of public funds.
The committee also recommended a reprimand for President Obasanjo for approving certain projects through the Federal Executive Council outside the mandate of the PTDF.
The report, however, sparked controversy in the Senate with many of the senators describing it as shoddy.
The development prompted the setting up of the Tsauri review committee.